L* 


v ftf jib?. 


••Hi* 4 - tfiwrtnfPJ 


I* ' -• • . 


- * • * 

. * * • . * . \ * » 


* • * 


1 * i • A 

• * 


• . * * ,» • . .. •» " i, < • ' • u * » <> . ••«» * < tf * • • •*»: • —v '.y ,• • • . * . • v * • • # 

• . • • • ‘ : • ’■ ■ ■ i‘. 

• . • • • . « . . * 4 * • « » • . j /• * . . » », ; • • . r . . * • „ . * * . 

4 * ,* • • » V * > i * . . ♦ Wt . ► * • • . J ' *•' 1 ! > ; * - ' • * ' * V * 

, • . • • » • . : • . 

■ ‘ .. * . " . » 

• • • ■ . u * •* - , ,, ii " > ., J • • .• ;• , ^ • • , 

*■* , 4 W j KJWi r kfi. * 

• 5 ► ’ i i» - . * >4 9 .. < • y. * *.v if/, v ^ r *^yi*y« 

• i . i t J • » V • . « • * l .. +. . . > - ' . i •» • * i . . .. 


■ - > . . ■ V » • .* . ■■ • * ; r, V • , ■ - *, 

, - ■ '. . • ■..». .-••». ...... r ■ • • •». - •■ . *■ 4 . . . ,• 

* i. ' * .« , .*i . ‘ * * * i* i ‘ , * If, • V • ,» • A , J * v 

• • .» • * . ‘ . •* • ’ , 'D . ° a ' . * * . * ■ . < * .I.*. * . T, f -•••», 

1 • « • • • « » i. i ‘ , . * 4 . | 

• . . ■ . , #n \ . + AfiiiJv ® fifj iJivMH f 

i * ; " 1 ♦*.** ? ’• .. 'j V 1 . V- ’ • ‘V.V‘ <• :t '* ' 




. f> • * * 1 • * ^ ».*? • * . ; i ■ , \ ' i . . „ , • •, * L‘, 1 ‘ r ' . T » f : li • M * * T I'm V • 1 

• i v ' • * . «. , • * • / ; • , . < *♦•'*. J •* \i 4 ■ « V • 4 ‘ \ • • i * * L _ » ' » i, j 

1 • ’ ... v, ••• • * •* • v * ,* 


•• • ’ « • .. . • - , 1 . , 1 • 

•'.Huy 

* « r i *i * * » ^* •* 0 * , ». » ■ * *. • ’ »/ j * •»#**# i * 1 i. • t». » • ►*, 4 *. r ■ * r * * * .i * j ‘ » i v f l 

• v- . : u ;» » v >• ' * Am%BTQ^M 

• *. . a * . - j 1 1 

*? V* .... •• : ■, 

• •• w ^ . iRiwSH 8 ^ v . n h • 


1 1 • 


, W 

•Vi 


' • i '+ tl 

» •(» 


Pv'A'SlPf 


/lv,OV 


** » \ * ; .j v • i.* • * » 

• ‘.-AtJn .. . it a ‘Tv* » « ... > <► * 4 * * • * 4 




* i f l" l ; 


9 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 


®)ptp. 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 


Shelf JLlfe 2. 



















































































































































* 










































« 

. 









. 









V \ 



























. * 






. 






















































































. 
















































* 

> 










| 










* 





’ 











' 

% 


jh. •* 4 

■ 
































: 0tm 3 folks' Strits. 



























t 






DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE TAKING LEAVE OF HIS FATHER AND MOTHER. 


Page 2 


THE 


LIFE AND ADVENTURES 


OF 

ROBINSON CRUSOE 


BY 

DANIEL DEFOE 

ti 




WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

THOMAS STOTHARD, R. A. 


V* / 'Ll* ^ O 

BOSTON 

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 



Copyright by 

D. Lothrop and Company 
1884 






-uz 


INTRODUCTION. 



A PREFACE to “Robinson Crusoe 99 has a certain air 
of superfluity. The fame of the book is so well 
established, and its popularity is so enduring, that 
one is naturally reminded of the homely adage which warns 
us that “good wine needs no bush.” Yet, although, in this 
instance, criticism is unnecessary, and praise impertinent, it 
is always profitable to remember from what source, and 
under what conditions, a time-honored classic had its origin. 

According to a depressing French epigram — or rather a 
French epigram that is depressing to middle-aged talent — 
the man who has not succeeded before he is thirty is hope- 
lessly doomed to failure. If success is to be measured by 
greatest achievements only, and minor efforts are to count 
for nothing, then Defoe is a striking instance of the fallacy 
of this dictum. When “ Robinson Crusoe ” first appeared, 
its author was in his fifty-eighth year, and already a volumi- 
nous and very various writer. Mr. William Lee, his latest 
and best biographer, whose labors have well-nigh made 
further enquiry unnecessary, enumerates in his revised 
catalogue of Defoe’s works no less than one hundred and 
ninety predecessors to this — his best-known book. Some 
of these, it is true, are only pamphlets of two or three leaves, 
but others are bulky volumes. The majority are on com- 


vi 


INTRODUCTION. 


mercial or political themes ; but the list, taken as a whole, 
and judged by the titles alone, affords an extraordinary idea 
of the sleepless activity and unwearied versatility of the 
author. It helps us, too, to comprehend from what wide 
reserves of experience and what a vast magazine of facts he 
drew the material for “ Robinson Crusoe,” and those less- 
known “ fictions in fac simile of nature,” which, during the 
last decade of his life, followed so rapidly upon it. From 
the first fugitive 4to sheet in double columns, to which in 
1687 he had consigned his “Reflections on His Majesty’s 
Declaration for Liberty of Conscience,” down to the “Family 
Instructor” of 1718, he had written upon almost every sub- 
ject that commends itself to the curiosity of the middle-class 
intelligence ; and when, in 1719, not long after he had been 
strickefi with apoplexy, he sat down undaunted to add fiction 
to his current journalism (which, as Mr. Lee has shown, he 
had never relinquished, but was only conducting clandes- 
tinely), he had accumulated an inexhaustible store of mis- 
cellaneous information. His habit of mind had accustomed 
him to minute and almost unconscious stock-taking, even of 
the trivial and commonplace ; and his habit of the pen had 
enabled him to record his impressions with the mechanical 
precision of stenography. He could not only “ report,” in 
short-hand writers’ phrase, with literal fidelity, but, in the 
absence of anything to report, he could invent a report, 
which should exhibit all the petty negligences, the every-day 
phraseology, the unlessoned aspect, and the inartistic bar- 
renness of naked truth. Add to this a very pronounced 
mental bias towards circumstantial forgeries like the “ Min- 
utes of the Negotiations of Mons. Mesnager,” or matter-of- 



INTRODUCTION. 


vii 


fact mystifications like the “True Relation of the Apparition 
of one Mrs. Veal and we have, superficially speaking, the 
qualities which produced “ Robinson Crusoe.” 

It is the inevitable characteristic of a mind of this type 
that we do not find in it the highest creative gifts. It collects 
and adjusts rather than originates, and its invention is shown 
chiefly in the ingenuity of its combinations. As a rule, it 
has a tendency to be disconnected in its operations; but, 
once furnished with a fitting central idea, its ability to supply 
detail and supplement is practically unlimited. With 
“Robinson Crusoe” this favorable germ was an actual 
occurrence. In September, 1704, a certain moody and ill- 
conditioned Alexander Selkirk or Selcraig, a sailor on board 
one of Dampier’s fleet, had quarrelled with his captain, who 
had forthwith “ marooned ” him, as the phrase then was, 
upon the desolate island of Juan Fernandez. Here he lived 
alone for more than four years, being taken off at last in 
February, 1709, by Captain Woods Rogers. He returned to 
England in 1711, and when Captain Rogers shortly after- 
wards published an account of his voyage, due mention was 
made of the interesting castaway whom he Jiad rescued in 
the Southern Seas. Somewhat later, in 1713, Selkirk was 
“interviewed” in London by Steele, who gave an oft- 
reprinted account of his adventures in No. 26 of the 
“ Englishman.” Whether Defoe, too, saw Selkirk in the 
flesh is not recorded ; but it is most probable that the first 
idea of his masterpiece came from Steele’s paper. 

However this may be, it was not until some years after- 
wards that “ Robinson Crusoe ” was actually published. 
The date of its issue by William Taylor “at the Ship in 


Vlll 


INTRODUCTION. 


Paternoster-Row” was the 25th of April, 1719; and the 
title, which is accurately reproduced in the present edition, 
ran as follows : — “The Life and Strange Surprising Adven- 
tures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived 
eight-and-twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island 
on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river 
of Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, 
wherein all the men perished but himself. With an account 
how he was at last as strangely delivered by pirates. Written 
by himself. The volume was an octavo of 364 pages, 
preface and title (two leaves) not included, and it was embel- 
lished by a rude copper-plate (here copied) in which “ Crusoe ” 
is represented on the sea-shore with his brace of guns and 
liis basket-hilted sword. At the end were two pages of ad- 
vertisements, from which the reader may judge in what curious 
companionship of dramas and sermons — new editions of 
Bysshe’s “Art of Poetry” and continuations of the “ Turkish 
Spy” — the most popular book of the century made its entry 
into the world. In the “preface,” where Defoe masquerades 
as editor, he gravely vouches for the authenticity of the 
narrative. He calls attention to the modesty and seriousness 
with which the tale is told; and he lays stress upon its 
excellent morality. He believes it (he says) to be “ a just 
history of fact; neither is there any appearance of fiction 
in it,” and he considers that he does the world “a great 
service in the publication.” Its : mmediate success showed 
that he had not miscalculated. The book — as Byron said 
of Gray’s “Elegy” — “pleased instantly and eternally.” 
Before the middle of May, a second edition was called for. 
A third followed in June, and a fourth in August. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IX 


With a forethought that was a part of his nature, Defoe 
had not omitted to leave the ways open for a sequel. “ All 
these things,” said 44 Crusoe” in his concluding lines, “with 
some very surprising incidents in some new adven- 
tures of my own, for ten years more, I may perhaps give a 
further account of hereafter.” From this it is clear that the 
author only waited for the success of the first part to prepare 
a second ; and, by the rapidity with which this second part 
was produced, he must have set about it immediately. Only 
twelve days after the issue of the fourth edition of Part I., 
appeared “The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; 
being the second and last part of his life, and of the strange 
surprising accounts of his travels round three parts of the 
globe. Written by himself. To which is added a map of 
the world, in which is delineated the voyages of Robinson 
Crusoe.” To this a volume of 373 pages, with a title, pre- 
face, and advertisements occupying four leaves, was prefixed 
a somewhat longer announcement than that which ushered 
in Part I. Retaining his editorial character, Defoe refers 
with edifying complacency to the success of the preceding 
volume, a success which he attributes “to the surprising 
variety of the subject, and to the agreeable manner of the 
performance. All the endeavors of envious people (he goes 
on) to reproach it with being a romance, to search it for 
errors in geography, inconsistency in the relation, and con- 
tradictions in the fact, have proved abortive, and as impotent 
as malicious. The just application of every incident, the 
religious and useful inferences drawn from every part, are 
so many testimonies to the good design of making it public; 
and must legitimate all the part that may be called invention, 


X 


INTRODUCTION. 


or parable, in the story.” The remainder of the “ preface,” 
which begins by promising that (“ contrary to the usage of 
second parts,”) the new volume will be 44 every way as enter- 
taining as the first,” is occupied by a protest against an 
unauthorized abridgment of the book which, it appears, had 
been put forth a few days before, from the “ Amsterdam 
Coffee-House,” by a piratical publisher. Defoe’s unfeigned 
indignation at this proceeding almost makes him forget his 
editorial character. 44 The injury these men do the proprietor 
of this work is a practice all honest men abhor; and he 
believes he may challenge them to show the difference 
between that and robbing on the highway, or breaking open 
a house. If they can’t show any difference in the crime, 
they will find it hard to show any difference in the punish- 
ment. And he will answer for it, that nothing shall be 
wanting on his part to do them justice.” 

Despite the promises of the preface, the second part of 
44 Robinson Crusoe ” did not meet with the success of its 
predecessor. Had it been equally well received, it is not 
impossible that Defoe, who (unlike Addison and Cervantes) 
had been careful not to kill his hero, might have discovered 
a pretext for a fresh consignment of “surprising adven- 
tures.” As it was, he did attempt to divert the interest in a 
new direction by a supplementary volume of 44 Serious 
Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of 
Robinson Crusoe. With his Vision of the Angelic World. 
Written by himself, 1720.” The book made little or no 
impression on the public, and is now seldom or never 
associated with Parts I. and II. But the preface, which 
purports to be from the pen of 44 Crusoe ” himself, is even of 


INTRODUCTION. 


XI 


greater interest than those from which we have already made 
extracts. It speaks of his previous biography as inculcating 
“ invincible patience under the worst of misery ; indefatigable 
application and undaunted resolution under the greatest and 
most discouraging circumstances.” The story, though 
“Allegorical,” is also declared to be “ Historical.” “ Farther,” 
says the writer (and it must be borne in mind that “ Crusoe ” 
is supposed to be speaking), “there is a man alive, and well- 
known, too, the actions of whose life are the just subject of 
these volumes, and to whom all or most part of the story 
directly alludes.” These words, taken in connection with 
other passages of the same “ preface ” and of the book itself, 
have generally been held to signify that, to some extent, Defoe 
intended “ Robinson Crusoe ” to symbolize his own solitary 
and self-reliant career. Whether this was a part of the 
original plan, or merely the result of an afterthought, there 
can be little doubt that in his practical character, his forti- 
tude, his perseverance, and most of the qualities which have 
endeared him and his adventures to so many generations of 
Englishmen, there are manifest affinities between “Robinson 
Crusoe ” and his creator, Daniel Defoe. 

To give any account of the various forms under which 
“Robinson Crusoe” has appeared since its first issue in 
1719, would be impossible in this place. But one or two 
particulars, chiefly in rectification of the earlier biographies 
may be here added. Much debate has taken place as to 
where the book was actually composed. Halifax, Gateshead 
in •Durham, Whitechapel, the village of Hartley in Kent, 
have all claimed this honor. Mr. Lee, however, has shown 
conclusively that, as his predecessor Mr. Wilson assumed, 


INTRODUCTION. 


xii 

it was planned and penned in Defoe’s own house at Stoke 
Newington. Further, it was alleged by Chalmers that the 
MS. went the round of the trade before it found a purchaser. 
Mr. Lee was unable to trace anything to support this state- 
ment, which, moreover, the known talents of Defoe make 
very improbable. Lastly, it was for some time supposed 
that “ Robinson Crusoe ” first appeared in the “ Original 
London Post,” or “ Heathcote’s Intelligencer.” It was in 
fact printed in the journal in question, but the publication 
did not begin until the 7th October, 1719, at which date both 
the first and second parts had been given to the world in 
book form. 


AUSTIN DOBSON. 


# 













































THE 

LIFE 

AN D 

Strange Surprizing 

ADVENTURES 

OP 

ROBINSON CRUSOE, 

Of TORIC Mariner: 

\VIio lived Eight and Twenty Years, 
all alone in an un-inhabited I/land on the 
Coaft of America, near the Mouth of 
the Great-River of Oroonoclue j 

Having been call on Shore by Ship w reck, where- 
in all the Men periled bat himfclil 
WITH 

AaAcconnthowhe'wasat JaG as Grange!/ deli- 
ver’d by PYR ATE S. 


Written lyj£n>jtlf. 


LONDON; 

Printed fot W. T a tlo a at the Shipin Pater-N/ler* 
Ram. MDCCXIX. 


Xviii ORIGINAL PREFACES. 

The Editor believes the thing to be a just History of 
Factj neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it: 
And however thinks , because all such things are dispatch' d, 
that the Improvement of it , as well to the Diversion , as to 
the Instruction of the Reader , will be the same ; and as 
such , he thinks , without farther Compliment to the World , 
he does them a great Service in the Publication, 


PREFACE TO PART II. 


THE Success the former Part of this Work has met with 
in the World \ has yet been no other than is acknowledge d 
to be due to the surprising Variety of the Subject , and to 
the agreeable Manner of the Performance . 

All the Endeavours of envious People to reproach it 
with being a Romance , to search it for Errors in Geog- 
raphy, Inconsistency in the Relation , and Contradictions 
in the Fact, have proved abortive, and as impotent as 
malicious . 

The just Application of every Incident, the religious and 
useful Inferences drawn from every Part, are so many 


ORIGINAL PREFACES. 


XIX 


Testimonies to the good Design of making it pub lick, and 
must legitimate all the Part that may be call'd Invention , 
or Parable in the Story . 

The Second Part , if the Editor's Opinion may pass, is 
( contrary to the Usage of Second Parts,) every Way as 
entertaining as the First , contains as strange and sur- 
prising Incidents , and as great a Variety of them ; nor 
is the Application less serious , or suitable ; and doubtless 
will , to the sober , as well as ingenious Reader , be every 
way as profitable and diverting ; and this makes the 
abridging this Work . as scandalous , as it is knavish and 
ridiculous , seeing , while to shorten the Book , that they may 
seem to reduce the Value, they strip it of all those Reflec- 
tions, as well religious as moral, which are not only the 
greatest Beautys of the Work, but are calculated for the 
infinite Advantage of the Reader . 

By this they leave the Work naked of its brightest 
Ornaments; and if they would, at the same Time pretend, 
that the Author has supply' d the Story out of his Invention , 
they take from it the Improvement, which alone rcco?n- 
rnends that Invention to wise and good Men . 

The Injury these Men do the Proprietor of this Work, 
is a Practice all honest Men abhor; and he believes 
he may challenge them to shew the Difference between 
that and Robbing on the Highway , or Breaking open a 
House . 


XX 


ORIGINAL PREFACES. 


If they can't shew any difference in the Crime , they 
will find it hard to shew why there should be any 
Difference in the Punishment : And he will answer for 
it , that nothing shall be wanting on his Party to do them 
Justice . 


THE 


LIFE AND ADVENTURES 

OF 

BOBIBSOB CBTJSOE. 


I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a 
good family, though not of that country, my father 
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. 
He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off 
his trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had 
married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, 
a very good family in that country, and after whom I was 
called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual corruption 
of words in England, we are now called, nay we call our- 
selves, and write our name Crusoe, and so my companions 
always called me. 

I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieutenant 
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, for- 
merly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was 
killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. 
What became of my second brother I never knew any more 
than my father and mother did know what was become 
of me. 

Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any 
trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling 
thoughts ; my father, who was very ancient, had given me 
a competent share of learning, as far as house education 
and a country free school generally goes, and designed me 
for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but 
going to sea, and my inclination to this led me so strongly 
against the will, nay the commands of my father, and 
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother 


2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal 
in that propension of Nature tending directly to the life of 
misery which was to befall me. 

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and 
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. 
He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was 
confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with 
me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons more 
than a mere wandering inclination I had for leaving my 
father’s house and my native country, where I might be 
well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortunes 
by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. 
He told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one 
hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who 
went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and 
make themselves famous in undertakings cf a nature out of 
the common road ; that these things were all either too far 
above me, or too far below me ; that mine was the middle 
state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, 
which he had found by long experience was the best state 
in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not 
exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and suf- 
ferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embar- 
rassed with the pride, luxury, ambition and envy of the 
upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the 
happiness of this state, by this one thing, viz: That this 
was the state of life which all other people envied ; that 
kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences 
of being born to great things, and wished they had been 
placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean 
and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this 
as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have 
neither poverty or riches. 

He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the 
calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower 
part of mankind ; but that the middle station had the few- 
est disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes 
as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not 
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses either of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 


body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury 
and extravagancies on one hand, or by hard labor, want of 
necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, 
bring distempers upon themselves by the natural conse- 
quences of their way of living; that the middle station of 
life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of 
enjoyments ; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a 
middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, 
health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable 
pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of 
life; 'that this way men went silently and smoothly through 
the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with 
the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life 
of slavery for daily bread, or harrassed with perplexed cir- 
cumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of 
rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burn- 
ing lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circum- 
stances sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting 
the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are 
happy, and learning by every day’s experience to know it 
more sensibly. 

After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affec- 
tionate manner, not to play the young man, not to precipitate 
myself into miseries which nature and the station of life I 
was born in, seemed to have provided against; that I was 
under no necessity of seeking my bread ; that he would do 
well for me, and endeavor to enter me fairly into the sta- 
tion of life which he had been just recommending to me; 
and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it 
must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it, and that 
he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged 
his duty in warning me against measures which he knew 
would be to my hurt : in a word, that as he would do very 
kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he 
directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfor- 
tunes, as to give me any encouragement to go away. And 
to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an exam- 
ple, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to 
keep him from going into the low country wars, but could 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


4 

not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into 
the army where he was killed ; and though he said he would 
not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, 
that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, 
and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having 
neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in 
my recovery. 

I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was 
truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know 
it to be so himself ; I say, I observed the tears run down 
his face very plentifully, and especially when he spoke of 
my brother who was killed ; and that when he spoke of my 
having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so 
moved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me his 
heart was so full he could say no more to me. 

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed 
who could be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of 
going abroad any more, but to settle at home according 
to my father’s desire. But alas! a few days wore it all 
off ; and, in short, to prevent any of my father’s farther 
importunities, in a few weeks after, I resolved to run quite 
away from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither 
as my first heat of resolution prompted, but I took my 
mother, at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter 
than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so 
entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should never 
settle to anything with resolution enough to go through 
with it, and my father had better give me his consent 
than force me to go without it; that I was now eighteen 
years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade, 
or clerk to an attorney ; that I was sure if I did, I should 
never serve out my time, and I should certainly run away 
from my master before my time was out, and go to sea; 
and if she would speak to my father to let me go but one 
voyage abroad, if I came home again and did not like it, I 
would go no more, and I would promise by a double dili- 
gence to recover that time I had lost. 

This put my mother into a great passion. She told me 
she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


S 

upon any such subject ; that he knew too well what was my 
interest to give his consent to anything so much for my 
hurt, and that she wondered how I could think of any such 
thing after such a discourse as I had had with my father, 
and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my 
father had used to me ; and that in short, if I would ruin 
myself there was no help for me ; but I might depend I 
should never have their consent to it. That for her part 
she would not have so much hand in my destruction ; and I 
should never have it to say, that my mother was willing 
when my father was not. 

Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet 
as I have heard afterwards she reported all the discourse 
to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern 
at it, said to her with a sigh, that boy might be happy if he 
would stay at home, but if he goes abroad he will be the 
miserablest wretch that was ever* born. I can give no 
consent to it. 

It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, 
though in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf to all 
proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostu- 
lating with my father and mother, about their being so 
positively determined against what they knew my inclina- 
tions prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I 
went casually, and without any purpose of making an 
elopement that time ; but I say, being there, and one of my 
companions being going by sea, to London, in his father’s 
ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the common 
allurement of seafaring men, viz : that it should cost me 
nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father or mother 
any more, nor so much as sent them word of it; but 
leaving them to hear of it as they might, without asking 
God’s blessing, or my father’s, without any consideration of 
circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God 
knows, on the first of September, 1651, I went on board a 
ship bound for London; never any young adventurer’s 
misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer 
than mine. The ship was no sooner gotten out of the 
Humber, but the wind began .to blow, and the waves to rise 


6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


in a most frightful manner; and as I had never been at 
sea before, I was most inexpressively sick in body, and 
terrified in my mind. I began now seriously to reflect 
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by 
the judgment of heaven for my wicked leaving my father’s 
house, and abandoning my duty; all the good counsel of 
my parents, my father’s tears, and my mother’s entreaties 
came now fresh into my mind, and my conscience, which 
was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has 
been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and 
the breach of my duty to God and my father. 

All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I 
had never been upon before, went very high, though noth- 
ing like what I have seen many times since ; no, nor like 
what I saw a few days after ; but it was enough to affect 
me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known 
anything of the matter. I expected every wave would have 
swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as 
I thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should 
never rise more ; and in this agony of mind, I made many 
vows and resolutions, that if it would please God here to 
spare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot 
upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father, 
and never set it into a ship again while I lived ; that I would 
take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as 
these any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his 
observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how 
comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been 
exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and I 
resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go 
home to my father. 

These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while 
the storm continued, and indeed some time after ; but the 
next day the wind was abated and the sea calmer, and I 
began to be a little inured to it. However, I was very grave 
for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards 
night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and 
a charming fine evening followed. The sun went down 
perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning ; and having 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


7 


little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, 
the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that I ever 
saw. 

I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea- 
sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea 
that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be 
so calm and so pleasant in so little time after. And now 
lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, 
who had indeed enticed me away, comes to me, “Well 
Bob,” says he, clapping me on the shoulder, “ how do you 
do after it? I warrant you were frightened, wa’ n’t you, last 
night, when it blew but a cap full of wind?” “A cap full 
d’ you call it ? ” said I, “ ’t was a terrible storm.” “A storm, 
you fool you,” replies he, “do you call that a storm? Why 
it was nothing at all ; give us but a good ship and sea room, 
and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that ! but 
you ’re but a fresh water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a 
bowl of punch and we ’ll forget all that ; d’ ye see what 
charming weather ’t is now?” To make short this sad part 
of my story, we went the old way of all sailors, the punch 
was made, and I was made drunk with it, and in that one 
night’s wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my 
reflections upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions for 
my future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its 
smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abate- 
ment of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, 
my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the 
sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires 
returned, I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I 
made in my distress. I found indeed some intervals of 
reflections, and the serious thoughts did, as it were, en- 
deavor to return again sometimes, but I shook them off, and 
roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and 
applying myself to drink and company, soon mastered the 
return of those fits, for so I called them, and I had in five 
or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any 
young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could 
desire. But I was to have another trial for it still; and 
Providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to 


8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


leave me entirely without excuse. For if I would not take 
this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the 
worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess 
both the danger and the mercy. 

The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth 
roads; the wind having been contrary, and the weather 
calm, we had made but little way since the storm. Here 
we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we lay, the 
wind continuing contrary, viz : at south-west, for seven or 
eight days, during which time a great many ships from 
Newcastle came into the same roads, as the common harbor 
where the ships might wait for a wind for the river. 

We had not however rode here so long, but should have 
tided it up the river, but that wind blew too fresh; and 
after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. How- 
ever, the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor, the 
anchorage good, and our ground-tackle very strong, our 
men were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of 
danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after the man- 
ner of the sea ; but the eighth day in the morning, the wind 
increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our top- 
masts, and make everything snug and close, that the ship 
might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very 
high indeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several 
seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come 
home ; upon which our master ordered out the sheet an- 
chor; so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the 
cables veered out to the better end. 

By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed, and now I 
began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the 
seamen themselves. The master though vigilant to the 
business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out 
of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say 
several times, “ Lord be merciful to us, we shall be all lost, 
we shall be all undone ; ” and the like. During these first 
hurries, I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in 
the steerage, and cannot describe my temper. I could ill 
reassume the first penitence which I had so apparently 
trampled upon, and hardened myself against. I thought 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


9 


the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would 
be nothing too like the first. But when the master himself 
came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be all 
lost, I was dreadfully frightened. I got up out of my cabin, 
and looked out ; but such a dismal sight I never saw. The 
sea went mountain high, and broke upon us every three or 
four minutes. When I could look about, I could see noth- 
ing but distress round us. Two ships that rode near us we 
found had cut their masts by the board, being deeply 
laden ; and our men cried out, that a ship which rode about 
a mile ahead of us was foundered. Two more ships being 
driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea 
at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. The 
light ships fared the best, as not so much laboring in the 
sea ; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, 
running away with only their sprit-sail out before the wind. 

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the 
master of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which 
he was very unwilling to. But the boatswain protesting to 
him, that if he did not, the ship would founder, he con- 
sented ; and when they had cut away the foremast, the 
mainmast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they 
were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear deck. 

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all 
this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such 
a fright before at but a little. But if I can express at this 
distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in 
tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former 
convictions, and the having returned from them to the reso- 
lutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death 
itself ; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me 
into such a condition, that I can by no words describe it. 
But the worst was not come yet, the storm continued with 
such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledged they 
had never known a worse. We had a good ship, but she 
was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen 
every now and then cried out, she would founder. It was 
my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they 
meant by founder, till I enquired. However, the storm was 


IO 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


so violent, that I saw what is not often seen, the master, the 
boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at 
their prayers, and expecting every moment when the ship 
would go to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and 
under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had 
been down on purpose to see, cried out we had sprung a 
leak ; another said there was four foot water in the hold. 
Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very 
word my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell 
backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the 
cabin. However, the men roused me, and told me, that 
I that was able to do nothing before, was as well able to 
pump as another; at which I stirred up, and went to the 
pump and worked very heartily. While this was doing, 
the master seeing some light colliers, who not able to ride 
out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and 
would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of 
distress. I who knew nothing what that meant, was so 
surprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some dread- 
ful thing had happened. In a word, I was so surprised, 
that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a time when 
everybody had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, 
or what was become of me; but another man stepped up to 
the pump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, 
thinking I had been dead ; and it was a great while before I 
came to myself. 

We worked on, but the water increasing in the hold, it 
was apparent that the ship would founder, and though the 
storm began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible 
she could swim till we might run into a port, so the master 
continued firing guns for help ; and a light ship, who had 
rode it out just ahead of us ventured a boat out to help us. 
It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but 
it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to 
lie near the ship side, till at last the men rowing very 
heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast 
them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered 
it out a great length, which they after great labor and hazard 
took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ii 


got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us 
after we were in the boat, to think of reaching to their own 
ship, so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her 
in towards shore as much as we could, and our master 
promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore, he 
would make it good to their master ; so partly rowing and 
partly driving, our boat went away to the norward, sloping 
towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness. 

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of 
our ship, but we saw her sink, and then I understood for 
the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the 
sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up 
when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that 
moment they rather put me into the boat than that I might 
be said to go in, my heart was as it were dead within me, 
partly with fright, partly with horror of mind and the 
thoughts of what was yet before me. 

While we were in this condition, the men yet laboring at 
the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see, 
when our boat mounting the waves, we were able to see the 
shore, a great many people running along the shore to 
assist us when we should come near, but we made but slow 
way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach the shore, 
till being past the light-house at Winterton, the shore falls 
off to the westward towards Cromer, and so the land broke 
off a little the violence of the wind. Here we got in, and 
though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, 
and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as un- 
fortunate men, we were used with great humanity as well by 
the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, 
as by particular merchants and owners of ships, and had 
money given us sufficient to carry us either to London or 
back to Hull, as we thought fit. 

Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and 
have gone home, I had been happy; and my father, an 
emblem of our blessed Saviour’s parable, had even killed 
the fatted calf for me ; for hearing the ship I went away in 
was cast away in Yarmouth road, it was a great while before 
he had any assurance that I was not drowned. 


12 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that 
nothing could resist ; and though I had several times loud 
calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to 
go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know not what to 
call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree 
that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruc- 
tion, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it 
with our eyes open. Certainly nothing but some such 
decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was 
impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward 
against the calm reasonings and joersuasions of my most 
retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions 
as I had met with in my first attempt. 

My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and 
who was the master’s son, was now less forward than I. 
The first time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, 
which was not till two or three days, for we were separated 
in the town to several quarters ; I say, the first time he saw 
me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very mel- 
ancholy and shaking his head, asked me how I did, and 
telling his father who I was, and how I had come this 
voyage only for a trial in order to go abroad. His father 
turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone, 
“ Young man,” says he, “ you ought never to go to sea any 
more. You ought to take this for a plain and visible token 
that you are not to be a seafaring man.” “ Why, sir,” 
said I, “will you goto sea no more?” “That is another 
case,” said he ; “ it is my calling, and therefore my duty ; 
but as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste 
Heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you 
persist. Perhaps this is all befallen us on your account, 
like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,” continues he, 
“ what are you, and on what account did you go to sea ? ” 
Upon that I told him some of my story. At the end of 
which he burst out with a strange kind of passion. “ What 
had I done,” says he, “ that such an unhappy wretch should 
come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the same 
ship with thee again for a thousand pounds. This indeed 
was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits which were yet 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


!3 


agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he 
could have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked 
very gravely to me, exhorted me to go back to my father, 
and not tempt Providence to my ruin ; told me I might see 
a visible hand of Heaven against me, “ And young man,” 
said he, “ depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever 
you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disap- 
pointments, till your father’s words are fulfilled upon you.” 

We parted soon after ; for I made him little answer, and 
I saw him no more ; which way he went, I know not. As 
for me, having some money in my pocket, I traveled to 
London by land ; and there, as well as on the road, had 
many struggles with myself, what course of life I should 
take, and whether I should go home, or go to sea. 

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that 
offered to my thoughts ; and it immediately occurred to me 
how I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and 
should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, 
but even every body else ; from whence I have since often 
observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper 
of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which 
ought to guide them in such cases, viz : That they are not 
ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not 
ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be 
esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which 
only can make them be esteemed wise men. 

In this state of life however, I remained some time, un- 
certain what measures to take, and what course of life to 
lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home; 
and as I stayed awhile, the remembrance of the distress I 
had been in wore off ; and as that abated, the little motion 
I had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till at last 
I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a 
voyage. 

That evil influence which carried me first away from my 
father’s house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested 
notion of raising my fortune ; and that impressed those con- 
ceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good 
advice, and to the entreaties and even command of my 


14 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


father: I say the same influence, whatever it was, presented 
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view, and I 
went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa ; or, as 
our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea. 

It was my great misfortune, that in all these adventures I 
did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though I might in- 
deed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the 
same time I had learned the duty and office of a fore-mast 
man ; and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or 
lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate 
to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in 
my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would always 
go on board in the habit of a gentleman ; and so I neither 
had any business in the ship, or learned to do any. 

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company 
in London, which does not always happen to such loose and 
misguided young fellows as I then was; the Devil generally 
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early. But it 
was not so with me ; I first fell acquainted with the master of 
a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea, and who hav- 
ing had very good success there, was resolved to go again; 
and who taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not 
at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind 
to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with him 
I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate and 
his companion, and if I could carry anything with me, I 
should have all the advantage of it that the trade would 
admit; and perhaps I might meet with some encourage- 
ment. 

I embraced the offer, and, entering into a strict friendship 
with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man* 
I went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure 
with me, which by the disinterested honesty of my friend, 
the captain, I increased very considerably; for I carried 
about ^40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed 
me to buy. This ^40 I had mustered together by the as- 
sistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with, 
and who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to 
contribute so much as that to my first adventure. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*5 

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful 
in all my adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and 
honesty of my friend the captain, under whom also I got a 
competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of 
navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship’s 
course, take an observation, and in short, to understand 
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor. 
For, as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to 
learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor 
and a merchant ; for I brought home L. 5. 9 ounces of gold 
dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London at my 
return, almost ^300, and this filled me with those aspiring 
thoughts which have since so completed my ruin. 

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; par- 
ticularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into a 
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate ; our 
principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of 
15 degrees North even to the line itself. 

I was now set up for a Guinea trader ; and my friend, to 
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved 
to go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the same 
vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and 
had now got the command of the ship. This was the un- 
happiest voyage that ever man made ; for though I did not 
carry quite ^100 of my new gained wealth, so that I had 
200 left, and which I lodged with my friend’s widow, who 
was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes in 
this voyage ; and the first was this, viz : Our ship making 
her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between 
those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the 
grey of the morning, by a Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave 
chase to us with all the sail she could make. We crowded 
also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our masts 
carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon 
us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we 
prepared to fight ; our ship having twelve guns, and the 
rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up 
with us, and bringing to by mistake, just athwart our quarter, 
instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight. 


i6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside 
upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning 
our fire, and pouring in also his small shot from near two 
hundred men which he had on board. However, we had not 
a man touched, all our men keeping close. He prepared to 
attack us again, and we to defend ourselves ; but laying us 
on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered 
sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting 
and hacking the decks and rigging. We plied them with 
small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and 
cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short this 
melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and 
three of our men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged 
to yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port 
belonging to the Moors. 

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I 
apprehended, nor was I carried up the country to the 
emperor’s court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept 
by the captain of the rover, as his proper prize, and made 
his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. 
At this surprising change of my circumstances from a 
merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; 
and now I looked back upon my father’s prophetic dis- 
course to me, that I should be miserable, and have none to 
relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought 
to pass, that it could not be worse; that now the hand of 
heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without re- 
demption. But alas! this was but a taste of the misery I 
was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this story. 

As my new patron or master had taken me home to his 
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him 
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some 
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or 
Portugal man-of-war; and that then I should be set at 
liberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away ; for 
when he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his 
little garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about 
his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, 
he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*7 

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what me- 
thod I might take to effect it, but found no way that had 
the least probability in it. Nothing presented to make the 
supposition of it rational; for I had nobody to communi- 
cate it to, that would embark with me ; no fellow-slave, no 
Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so 
that for two years, though I often pleased myself with the 
imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging prospect 
of putting it in practice. 

After about two years an odd circumstance presented it- 
self, which put the old thought of making some attempt for 
my liberty again in my head. My patron lying at home 
longer than usual, without fitting out his ship, which, as I 
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or 
twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to 
take the ship’s pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; 
and as he always took me and a young Maresco with him to 
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very 
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he 
would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the 
youth the Maresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of 
fish for him. 

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm 
morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a 
league from the shore we lost sight of it; and rowing we 
knew not whither or which way, we labored all day and all 
the next night, and when the morning came we found we 
had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and 
that we were at least two leagues from the shore. However, 
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labor, and 
some danger ; for the wind began to blow pretty fre£h in the 
morning ; but particularly we were all very hungry. 

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take 
more care of himself for the future; and having lying by 
him the long-boat of our English ship which he had taken, 
he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a 
compass and some provision ; so he ordered the carpenter 
of his ship, who was also an English slave, to build a little 
state-room or cabin in the middle of the long-boat, like that 


i8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


of a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul 
home the main-sheet ; and room before for a hand or two to 
stand and work the sails ; she sailed with what we call a 
shoulder-of-mutton sail ; and the boom gibed over the top of 
the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room 
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, 
with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such 
liquor as he thought fit to drink ; particularly his bread, rice 
and coffee. 

We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as I 
was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went 
without me. It happened that he had appointed to go out 
in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three 
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he 
had provided extraordinarily; and had therefore sent on 
board the boat over night, a larger store of provisions than 
ordinary ; and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees with 
powder and shot, which were on board his ship; for that 
they designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing. 

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the 
next morning with the boat, washed clean, her ancient and 
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests ; 
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told 
me his guests had put off going, upon some business that 
fell out, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to 
go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his 
friends were to sup at his house ; and commanded that as 
soon as I had got some fish I should bring it home to his 
house ; all which I prepared to do. 

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted 
into my thoughts, for now I found I was like to have a little 
ship at my command; and my master being gone, I prepared 
to furnish myself, not for a fishing business, but for a 
voyage ; though I knew not, neither did I so much as con- 
sider whither I should steer; for anywhere to get out of 1 vat 
place was my way. 

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to spea' to 
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board , 
for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patre 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*9 

bread ; he said that was true. So he brought a large basket 
of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and three jars with fresh 
water into the boat. I knew where my patron’s case of 
bottles stood, which it was evident by the make were taken 
out of some English prize ; and I conveyed them into the 
boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they had been there 
before, for our master. I conveyed also a great lump of 
bees-wax into the boat, which weighed about half a hundred 
weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, 
and a hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards; 
especially the wax to make candles. Another trick I tried 
upon him, which he innocently came into also. His name 
was Ismael, who they call Muly, or Moely, so I called to him, 
“ Moely,” said I, “our patron’s guns are on board the boat; 
can you not get a little powder and shot, it may be we may 
kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves ? 
for I know he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” 
“Yes,” says he “I’ll bring some.” And accordingly he 
brought a great leather pouch which held about a pound and 
half of powder, or rather more ; and another with shot, that 
had five or six pound, with some bullets, and put all into 
the boat. At the same time I had found some powder of 
my master’s in the great cabin, with which I filled one of 
the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pour- 
ing what was in it into another; and thus furnished with 
everything needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The 
castle which is at the entrance of the port knew who we 
were, and took no notice of us ; and we were not above a 
mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail, and set 
us down to fish. The wind blew from the N. N. E., which 
was contrary to my desire ; for had it blown southerly I had 
been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least 
reached the Bay of Cadiz ; but my resolutions were, blow 
which way it would, I would be gone from the horrid place 
where I was, and leave the rest to fate. 

After we had fished some time and caught nothing, for 
when I had fish on my hook, I would not pull them up, that 
he might not see them, I said to the Moor, “this will not 
do, our master will not be thus served, we must stand far- 


20 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ther off.” He thinking no harm agreed, and being in the 
head of the boat set the sails ; and as I had the helm I run 
the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her 
to, as if I would fish. When giving the boy the helm, I 
stepped forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I 
stooped for something behind me, I took him by surprise 
with my arm under his twist, and tossed him clear over- 
board into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam like 
a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he 
would go all the world over with me. He swam so strong 
after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly, 
there being but little wind. Upon which I stepped into the 
cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it 
at him, and told him I had done him no hurt, and if he 
would be quiet, I would do him none; “but,” said I, “you 
swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; 
make the best of your way to shore, and I will do you no 
harm, but if you come near the boat I’ll shoot you through 
the head ; for I am resolved to have my liberty.” So he 
turned himself about and swam for the shore, and I make 
no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent 
swimmer. 

I could have been content to have taken this Moor with 
me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing 
to trust him. When he was gone I turned to the boy, who 
they called Xury, and said to him, “ Xury, if you will be 
faithful to me I’ll make you a great man, but if you will not 
stroke your face to be true to me, that is, swear by 
Mahomet and his father’s beard, I must throw you into the 
sea too.” The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so inno- 
cently that I could not mistrust him ; and swore to be faith- 
ful to me, and go all over the world with me. 

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I 
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to 
windward, that they might think me gone towards the strait’s 
mouth, (as indeed any one that had been in their wits must 
have been supposed to do) for who would have supposed we 
would sail on to the southward to the truly barbarian coast, 
where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 T 


with their canoes, and destroy us ; where we could never 
once go on shore but we should be devoured by savage 
beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind. 

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed 
my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending 
my course a little toward the east, that I might keep in with 
the shore ; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a 
smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the 
next day at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made 
the land, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty 
miles south of Sallee ; quite beyond the emperor of Mo- 
rocco’s dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, 
for we saw no people. 

Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the 
dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, 
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; 
the wind continuing fair, still I had sailed in that manner 
five days. And then the wind shifting to the southward, I 
concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me, 
they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the 
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I 
knew not what, or where; neither what latitude, what 
country, what nation, or what river. I neither saw, or 
desired to see any people, the principal thing I wanted was 
fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening, 
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and dis- 
cover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we 
heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and 
howling of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that 
the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not 
to go on shore till day. “Well Xury,” said I, “then I won’t, 
but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to 
us as those lions.” “ Then we give them the shoot gun,” says 
Xury, laughing, “make them run away.” Such English Xury 
spoke by conversing among us slaves ; however, I was glad 
to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of 
our patron’s case of bottles) to chear him up. After all, 
Xury’s advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little 
anchor and lay still all night ; I say still, for we slept none ! 




ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


22 

for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we 
knew not what to call them), of many sorts, come down to 
the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and washing 
themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves ; and they 
made such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never 
indeed heard the like. 

Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; 
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these 
mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we 
could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing to 
be a monstrous, huge and furious beast. Xury said it was a 
lion, and it might be so for ought I knew ; but poor Xury 
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; “no,” says I, 
“ Xury, we can slip our cable with the buoy to it and go off to 
sea; they cannot follow us far.” I had no sooner said so, but 
I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’ 
length, which something surprised me ; however, I immedi- 
ately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun fired 
at him, upon which he immediately turned about and swam 
towards the shore again. 

But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and 
hideous cries and howlings, that were raised as well upon 
the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon 
the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason 
to believe those creatures had never heard before. This 
convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in 
the night upon that coast ; and how to venture on shore in 
the day was another question, too ; for to have fallen into 
the hands of any of the savages, had been as bad as to have 
fallen into the hands of lions and tigers ; at least we were 
equally apprehensive of the danger of it. 

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore some- 
where or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the 
boat; when or where to get to it was the point. Xury said, 
if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he would 
find it if there was any water and bring some to me. I 
asked him why he would go? why I should not go and he 
stay in the boat? The boy answered with so much affection 
that made me love him ever after. Says he, “if wild mans 




ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


23 


come, they eat me, you go way.” “ Well, Xury,” said I, “we 
will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they 
shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piece of rusk-bread 
to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottles which 
I mentioned before ; and we hauled in the boat as near the 
shore as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, 
carrying nothing but our arms and two jars for water. 

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the 
coming of canoes with savages down the river ; but the boy 
seeing a low place about a mile up the country rambled to 
it; and by-and-by I saw him come running towards me. I 
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frightened with 
some wild beast, and I run forward towards him to help him, 
but when I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging 
over his shoulders which was a creature that he had shot, 
like a hare, but different in color, and longer legs ; however 
we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat ; but the 
great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me that he 
had found good water and seen no wild men. 

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains 
for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, 
we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which 
Bowed but a little way up ; so we filled our jars and feasted 
on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, 
having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that 
part of the country. 

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very 
well that the Islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd 
Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had 
no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude 
we were in, and did not exactly know, or at least remember 
what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for 
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise 
I might now easily have found some of these islands. But 
my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to 
that part where the English traded, I should find some of 
their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would re- 
lieve and take us in. 

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, 


24 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


must be that country which, lying between the emperor of 
Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste and unin- 
habited, except by wild beasts ; the negroes having aban- 
doned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors ; and 
the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its 
barrenness; and indeed both forsaking it because of the pro- 
digious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards and other furious 
creatures which harbor there ; so that the Moors use it for 
their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or three 
thousand men at a time ; and indeed for near an hundred 
miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste, 
uninhabited country, by day, and heard nothing but howlings 
and roaring of wild beasts, by night. 

Once or twice in the daytime, I thought I saw the Pico of 
Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe, 
in the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out in 
hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice I was 
forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too 
high for my little vessel, so I resolved to pursue my first de- 
sign and keep along the shore. 

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after 
we had left this place ; and once in particular, being early in 
the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of 
land which was pretty high, and the tide beginning to flow, 
we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more 
about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and 
tells me that we had best go farther off from the shore ; “ for,” 
says he, “ look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of 
that hillock, fast asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw 
a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion 
that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece 
of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. “Xury,” says 
I, “ you shall go on shore and kill him.” Xury looked fright- 
ened, and said, “ Me kill ! he eat me at one mouth ; ” one 
mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, 
but bade him lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which was 
almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of 
powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded 
another gun with two bullets, and the third, for we had three 



ROBINSON CRUSOE AND XURY ALARMED AT THE SIGHT OF A LION. 


Page 24 
















ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


25 


pieces, I loaded with live smaller bullets. I took the best 
aim I could with the first piece to have shot him into the 
head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, 
that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. 
He started up growling at first, but finding his leg broke fell 
down again, and then got up upon three legs and gave the 
most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised 
that I had not hit him on the head ; however, 1 took up the 
second piece immediately, and though he began to move off 
fired again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure 
to see him drop, and make but little noise, but lay struggling 
for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him 
go on shore. “ Well, go,” said I ; so the boy jumped into the 
water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swain to shore 
with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put 
the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head 
again, which despatched him quite. 

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food, and I 
was sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a 
creature that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury 
said he would have some of him; so he comes on board and 
asked me to give him the hatchet. “For what, Xury?” said 
I. “Me cut off his head,” said he. However, Xury could 
not cut off his head; but he cut off afoot and brought it 
with him, and it was a monstrous great one. 

I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of him 
might, one way or other, be of some value to us, and I re- 
solved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I went 
to work with him; but Xury was much the better workman 
at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took us up 
both the whole day; but at last we got off the hide of him, 
and, spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually 
dried it in two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to lie 
upon. 

After this stop we made on to the southward continually 
for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, 
** which began to abate very. much, and going no oftener into 
the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water; my de- 
sign in this way was to make the river Gambia or Senegal, 


26 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that is to say, anywhere about the Cape de Verd, where I 
was in hopes to meet with some European ship, and if I did 
not I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek out 
for the islands, or perish there among the negroes. I knew 
that all the ships from Europe which sailed either to the 
coast of Guinea, or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made 
this cape or those islands, and, in a word, I put the whole of 
my fortune upon this single point, — either that I must meet 
with some ship or must perish. 

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days 
longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was in- 
habited, and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw 
people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also 
perceive they were quite black and stark naked. I was 
once inclined to have gone on shore to them, but Xury was 
my better counsellor, and said to me, “No go, no go.” 
However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to 
them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good 
way. I observed they had no weapons in their hands, ex- 
cept one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was 
a lance, and that they would throw them a great way with 
good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by 
signs as well as I could, and particularly made signs for 
something to eat. They beckoned to me to stop my boat, 
and that they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I 
lowered the top of my sail and lay by, and two of them ran 
up into the country, and in less than half an hour came 
back and brought with them two pieces of dried flesh and 
some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we 
neither knew what the one or the other was. However, we 
were willing to accept it; but how to come at it was our next 
dispute, for 1 was not for venturing on shore to them, and 
they were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way 
for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it down, 
and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on 
board, and then came close to us again. 

We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to 
make them amends ; but an opportunity offered that very 
instant to oblige them wonderfully, for while we were lying 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


27 


by the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the 
other (as we took it), with great fury, from the mountains 
towards the sea ; whether it was the male pursuing the 
female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could 
not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual or 
strange, but I believe it was the latter; because in the first 
place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the 
night ; and, in the second place we found the people terribly 
frighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance 
or dart, did not fly from them, but the rest did ; however, as 
the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not 
seem to offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged 
themselves into the sea and swam about as if they had come 
for their diversion ; at last one of them began to come nearer 
our boat than at first I expected, but I lay ready for him, for 
I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade 
Xury load both the others ; as soon as he came fairly within 
my reach, I fired, and shot him directly into the head; 
immediately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly 
and plunged up and down as if he was struggling for life; 
and so indeed he was; he immediately made to the shore; 
but between the wound which was his mortal hurt, and the 
strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the 
shore. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor 
creatures at the noise and the fire of my gun ; some of them 
were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with 
the very terror. But when they saw the creature dead and 
sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to come to 
the shore, they took heart and came to the shore and began 
to search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining 
the water, and by the help of a rope which I slung round 
him and gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on 
shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted 
and fine to an admirable degree, and the negroes held up 
their hands with admiration to think what it was I had killed 
him with. 

The other creature frighted with the flash of fire and the 
noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the 


30 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


says he, “ I have saved your life on no other terms than I 
would be glad to be saved myself, and it may, one time or 
another, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition; 
besides,” said he, “when I carry you to the Brazils, so great 
a way from your own country, if I should take from you 
what you have, you will be starved there, and then I only 
take away that life I have given. No, no, Seignor Inglese,” 
says he, “Mr. Englishman, I will carry you thither in char- 
ity, and those things will help you to buy your subsistence 
there and your passage home again.” 

As he was charitable in his proposal so he was just in the 
performance to a tittle, for he ordered the seamen that none 
should offer to touch anything I had ; then he took every- 
thing into his own possession, and gave me back an exact 
inventory of them, that I might have them, even so much as 
my three earthen jars. 

As to my fjoat, it was a very good one, and that he saw 
and told me he would buy it of me for the ship’s use, and 
asked me what I would have for it. I told him he had been 
so generous to me in everything that I could not offer to 
make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him, upon 
which he told me he would give me a note of his hand to 
pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil, and when it 
came there if anyone offered to give more he would make it 
up. He offered me, also, sixty pieces of eight more for my 
boy Xury, which I was loth to take : not that I was not 
willing to let the captain have him, but I was very loth to 
sell the poor boy’s liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully 
in procuring my own. However, when I let him know my 
reason, he owned it to be just and offered me this medium, 
— that he would give the boy an obligation 'to- set him free 
in ten years, if he turned Christian. Upon this, and Xury 
saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have 
him. 

We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived in 
the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints Bay, in about 
twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered 
from the most miserable of all conditions of life, and what 
to do next with myself I was now to consider. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


31 


The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never 
enough remember ; he would take nothing of me for my 
passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard’s skin, and 
forty for the lion’s skin which I had in my boat, and caused 
everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered me, 
and what I was walling to sell he bought, such as the case 
of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of bees- 
wax, for I had made candles of the rest; in a word, I made 
about two hundred and tw r enty pieces of eight of all my 
cargo, and with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils. 

I had not been long here, but being recommended to the 
house of a good, honest man like himself, who had an in- 
geino as they call it, that is, a plantation and a sugar house. 
I lived with him some time, and acquainted myself by that 
means with the manner of their planting and making of 
sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they 
grew rich suddenly, I resolved if I could get license to 
settle there, I would turn planter among them, resolving in 
the meantime to find out some way to get my money which 
I had left in London remitted to me. To this purpose get- 
ting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I purchased as much 
land that was uncured, as my money would reach, and 
formed a plan for my plantation and settlement, and such a 
one as might be suitable to the stock which I proposed to 
myself to receive from England. 

I had a neighbor, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of 
English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such 
circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbor, because 
his plantation lay next to mine, and we went 011 very so- 
ciably together. My stock was but low as well as his ; and 
we rather planted for food, than anything else, for about 
two years. However, we began to increase, and our land 
began to come into order, so that the third year we planted 
some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground 
ready for planting canes in the year to come ; but we both 
wanted help : and now I found more than before, I had 
done wrong in parting with my boy Xury. 

But alas ! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no 
great wonder. I had no remedy but to go on. I was gotten 


3 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly 
contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook 
my father’s house, and broke through all his good advice. 
Nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or upper 
degree of low life, which my father advised me to before ; 
and which if I resolved to go on with, I might as well have 
staid at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world 
as I had done ; and I used often to say to myself, I could 
have done this as well in England among my friends, as 
have gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangers 
and savages in a wilderness, and at such a distance as never 
to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowl- 
edge of me. 

In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the 
utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with but now and 
then this neighbor ; no work to be done, but by the labor of 
my hands ; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast 
away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but 
himself. But how just has it been, and how should all men 
reflect, that, when they compare their present conditions with 
others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the 
exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity, by their 
experience. I say, how just has it been, that the truly soli- 
tary life I reflected on in an island of mere desolation should 
be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the 
life which I then led, in which had I continued, I had in all 
probability been exceeding prosperous and rich. 

I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying 
on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the 
ship that took me up at sea, went back ; for the ship remained 
there in providing his loading, and preparing for his voyage, 
near three months. When telling him what little stock I 
had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and 
sincere advice, “ Seignor Inglese,” says he, for so he always 
called me, “if you will give me letters, and a procuration here 
in form to me, with orders to the person who has your money 
in London, to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons 
as I shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this 
country, I will bring you the produce of them, God willing, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


33 


at my return ; but since human affairs are all subject to 
changes and disasters, I would have you give orders but for 
one hundred pounds sterling, which you say is half your 
stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so that if it 
come safe, you may order the rest the same way, and if it 
miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to 
for your supply.” 

This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, 
that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I 
could take ; so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentle- 
woman with whom I had left my money, and a procuration 
to the Portuguese captain, as he desired. 

I wrote the English captain’s widow a full account of all 
my adventures, my slavery, escape, and how I had met with 
the Portugal captain at sea, the humanity of his behavior, 
and in what condition I was now in, with all other necessary 
directions for my supply; and when this honest captain 
came to Lisbon, he found means by some of the English 
merchants there, to send over not the order only, but a full 
account of my story to a merchant at London, who repre- 
sented it effectually to her; whereupon, she not only deliv- 
ered the money, but out of her own pocket sent the Portugal 
captain a very handsome present for his humanity and charity 
to me. 

The merchant in London vesting this hundred pounds in 
English goods, such as the captain had wrote for, sent them 
directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to 
me to the Brazils, among which, without my direction (for I 
was too young in my business to think of them) he had taken 
care to have all sorts of tools, iron-work, and utensils neces- 
sary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me. 

When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for 
I was surprised with joy of it ; and my good steward, the 
captain, had laid out the five pounds which my friend had 
sent him for a present for himself, to purchase, and bring 
me over a servant under bond for six years’ service, and 
would not accept of any consideration, except a little to- 
bacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own 
produce. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


34 

Neither was this all; but my goods being all English 
manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, bays, and things particu- 
larly valuable and desirable in the country, I found means to 
sell them to a very great advantage ; so that I may say, I 
had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and 
was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor, I mean in the 
advancement of my plantation ; for the first thing I did, I 
bought me a negro slave, and an European servant also; 
I mean another besides that which the captain brought me 
from Lisbon. 

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very 
means of our greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went 
on the next year with great success in my plantation. I 
raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more 
than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors ; 
and these fifty rolls being each of about ioo weight were 
well cured and laid by against the. return of the fleet from 
Lisbon. And now increasing in business and in wealth, my 
head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond 
my reach; such as are indeed often the ruin of the best 
heads in business. 

Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room 
for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which 
my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and 
of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of 
life to be full of ; but other things attended me, and I was 
still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and 
particularly to increase my fault, and double the reflections 
upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have 
leisure to make; all these miscarriages were procured by 
my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of 
wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contra- 
diction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair 
and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of 
life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me 
with, and to make my duty. 

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my 
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and 
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


35 


in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoder- 
ate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admit- 
ted; and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest 
gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps 
could be consistent with life and a state of health in the 
world. 

To come then by the just degrees, to the particulars of 
this part of my story, you may suppose, that having now 
lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to 
thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not 
only learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance 
and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among 
the merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our port; and 
that in my discourses among them, I had frequently given 
them an account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, 
the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how easy 
it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles, such as beads, 
toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like, 
not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants’ teeth, etc., but 
negroes for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers. 

They listened always very attentively to my discourses on 
these heads, but especially to that part which related to the 
buying negroes, which was a trade at that time not only far 
entered into, but as far as it was, had been carried on by the 
assiento, or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, 
and engrossed in the public, so that few negroes were 
brought, and those excessive dear. 

It happened, being in company with some merchants and 
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very 
earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and 
told me they had been musing very much upon what I had 
discoursed with them of, the last night, and they came to 
make a secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me 
secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a ship 
to go to Guinea, that they had all plantations as well as I, 
and were straitened for nothing so much as servants ; that 
as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because they 
could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so 
they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


34 

Neither was this all; but my goods being all English 
manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, bays, and things particu- 
larly valuable and desirable in the country, I found means to 
sell them to a very great advantage ; so that I may say, I 
had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and 
was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbor, I mean in the 
advancement of my plantation ; for the first thing I did, I 
bought me a negro slave, and an European servant also; 
I mean another besides that which the captain brought me 
from Lisbon. 

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very 
means of our greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went 
on the next year with great success in my plantation. I 
raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more 
than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors ; 
and these fifty rolls being each of about ioo weight were 
well cured and laid by against the. return of the fleet from 
Lisbon. And now increasing in business and in wealth, my 
head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond 
my reach; such as are indeed often the ruin of the best 
heads in business. 

Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room 
for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which 
my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and 
of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of 
life to be full of ; but other things attended me, and I was 
still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and 
particularly to increase my fault, and double the reflections 
upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have 
leisure to make; all these miscarriages were procured by 
my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of 
wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contra- 
diction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair 
and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of 
life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me 
with, and to make my duty. 

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my 
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and 
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


35 

in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoder- 
ate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admit- 
ted; and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest 
gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps 
could be consistent with life and a state of health in the 
world. 

To come then by the just degrees, to the particulars of 
this part of my story, you may suppose, that having now 
lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to 
thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not 
only learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance 
and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among 
the merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our port; and 
that in my discourses among them, I had frequently given 
them an account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, 
the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how easy 
it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles, such as beads, 
toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like, 
not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants’ teeth, etc., but 
negroes for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers. 

They listened always very attentively to my discourses on 
these heads, but especially to that part which related to the 
buying negroes, which was a trade at that time not only far 
entered into, but as far as it was, had been carried on by the 
assiento, or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, 
and engrossed in the public, so that few negroes were 
brought, and those excessive dear. 

It happened, being in company with some merchants and 
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very 
earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and 
told me they had been musing very much upon what I had 
discoursed with them of, the last night, and they came to 
make a secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me 
secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a ship 
to go to Guinea, that they had all plantations as well as I, 
and were straitened for nothing so much as servants ; that 
as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because they 
could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so 
they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 6 

on shore privately, and divide them among their own planta- 
tions ; and, in a word, the question was, whether I would go 
their super-cargo in the ship to manage the trading part 
upon the coast of Guinea? And they offered me that I 
should have my equal share of the negroes, without provid- 
ing any part of the stock. 

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it 
been made to anyone that had not had a settlement and 
plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way 
of coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock 
upon it. But for me that was thus entered and established, 
and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun for three or 
four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred 
pounds from England, and who, in that time and with that 
little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three 
or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing, too, 
for me to think of such a voyage was the most preposter- 
ous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be 
guilty of. 

But I that was born to be my own destroyer could no 
more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling 
designs, when my father’s good counsel was lost upon me. 
In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart if they 
would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, 
and would dispose of it to such as I should direct if I mis- 
carried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into 
writings or covenants to do so, and I made a formal will, 
disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my death, 
making the captain of the ship that had saved my life as be- 
fore my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my 
effects as I had directed in my will, one-half of the produce 
being to himself and the other to be shipped to England. 

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects 
and keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much pru- 
dence to have looked into my own interest, and have made 
a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have 
done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous 
an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving 
circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 3 7 

all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had 
to expect particular misfortunes to myself. 

But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of 
my fancy rather than my reason; and accordingly, the ship 
being fitted out and the cargo furnished, and all things done as 
by agreement by my partners in the voyage, I went on board 
in an evil hour, the 1st of September, 1659, being the same 
day, eight year, that I went from my father and mother at 
Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the 
fool to my own interest. 

Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burthen, 
carried six guns and fourteen men, besides the master, his 
boy and myself. We had on board no large cargo of goods, 
except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the ne- 
groes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells and odd trifles, 
especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, 
and the like. 

The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away 
to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch 
over for the African coast, when they came about ten or 
twelve degrees of northern latitude, which it seems was the 
manner of their course in those days. We had very good 
weather, only excessive heat all the way upon our own 
coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augustin o, 
from whence, keeping farther off at sea, we lost sight of 
land, and steered as if we were bound for the Isle Fernand 
de Noronha, holding our course N. E. by N., and leaving 
those isles on the east. In this course we passed the line 
in about twelve days’ time, and were, by our last observa- 
tion, in seven degrees, twenty-two minutes, northern lat- 
itude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite 
out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came 
about to the north-west, and then settled into the north- 
east, from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for 
12 days together we could do nothing but drive, and scudding 
away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and the 
fury of the winds directed; and during these 12 days, I 
need not say, that I expected every day to be swallowed up, 
nor indeed did any in the ship expect to save their lives. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


38 

In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, 
one of our men died of the calenture, and one man and the 
boy washed overboard; about the 12th day the weather 
abating a little, the master made an observation as well as 
he could, and found that he was in about 11 degrees north 
latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude difference 
west from Cape St. Augustino ; so that he found he was 
gotten upon the coast of Guinea, or the north part of Brazil, 
beyond the river Amozones, toward that of the river 
Oronoque, commonly called the Great River, and began to 
consult with me what course he should take, for the ship 
was leaky and very much disabled, and he was going directly 
back to the coast of Brazil. 

I was positively against that, and looking over the charts 
of the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there 
was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we 
came within the circle of the Carribbe-Islands, and therefore 
resolved to stand away for Barbadoes, which by keeping off 
at sea, to avoid the indraft of the bay or gulf of Mexico, we 
might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days 
sail, whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the 
coast of Africa without some assistance, both to our ship 
and to ourselves. 

With this design we changed our course, and steered away 
N. W. by W. in order to reach some of our English islands, 
where I hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise 
determined, for being in the latitude of 12 deg. 18 min. a 
second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the 
same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very 
way of all humane commerce, that had all our lives been 
saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being 
devoured by savages than ever returning to our own 
country. 

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of 
our men early in the morning, cried out, “ land ; ” and we 
had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out in hopes of 
seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship 
struck upon a sand, and in a moment her motion being so 
stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


39 


expected we should all have perished immediately, and we 
were immediately driven into our close quarters to shelter 
us from the very foam and spray of the sea. 

It is not easy for anyone, who has not been in the like 
condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men 
in such circumstances; we knew nothing where we were, or 
upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or 
the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; and as the 
rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at 
first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold 
many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds 
by a kind of miracle should turn immediately about. In a 
word, we sat looking one upon another, and expecting death 
every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as pre- 
paring for another world, for there was little or nothing 
more for us to do in this ; that which was our present 
comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that contrary to 
our expectation the ship did not break yet, and that the 
master said the wind began to abate. 

Now though we thought that the wind did a little abate, 
yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking 
too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dread- 
ful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of 
saving our lives as well as we could ; we had a boat at our 
stern, just before the storm, but she was first staved by 
dashing against the ship’s rudder, and in the next place she 
broke away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea, so 
there was no hope from her; we had another boat on board, 
but how to get her off into the sea, was a doubtful thing; 
however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied the 
ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us 
she was actually broken already. 

In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the 
boat, and with the help of the rest of the men they got her 
slung over the ship’s side, and getting all into her, let go, 
and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God’s 
mercy and the wild sea; for, though the storm was abated 
considerably, yet the sea went dreadfully high upon the 


40 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


shore, and might well be called “Den wild Zee,” as the 
Dutch call the sea in a storm. 

And now our case was very dismal indeed, for we all saw 
plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not 
live, and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to 
making sail, we had none, nor, if we had could we have 
done anything with it; so we worked at the oar towards the 
land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution, 
for we all knew that when the boat came nearer the shore 
she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of 
the sea. However, we committed our souls to God in the 
most earnest manner, and, the wind driving us towards the 
shore, we hastened our destruction with our own hands, 
pulling as well as we could towards land. 

What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep 
or shoal, we knew not. The only hope that could rationally 
give us the least shadow of expectation was if we might 
happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, 
where, by great chance, we might have run our boat in, or 
got under the lea of the land, or perhaps made smooth 
water. But there was nothing of this appeared ; but as we 
made nearer and nearer the shore the land looked more 
frightful than the sea. 

After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and 
a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came 
rowling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the 
coup-de-grace. In a word, it took us with such a fury that 
it overset the boat at once, and separating us as well from 
the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly 
to say, “O God!” for we were all swallowed up in a 
moment. 

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I 
felt when I sunk into the water, for though I swam very 
well, yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to 
draw breath till that wave having driven me, or rather car- 
ried me a vast way on towards the shore, and having spent 
itself, went back and left me upon the land almost dry, but 
half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence 
of mind as well as breath left that seeing myself nearer the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


4 * 

main land than I expected, I got upon my feet and endeav- 
ored to make on towards the land as fast as I could, before 
another wave should return and take me up again. But I 
soon found it was impossible to avoid it, for I saw the sea 
come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an 
enemy which I had no means or strength to contend with. 
My business was to hold my breath and raise myself upon 
the water if I could, and so, by swimming, to preserve my 
breathing and pilot myself towards the shore if possible, 
my greatest concern now being that the sea, as it would 
carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, 
might not carry me back again with it when it gave back 
towards the sea. 

The wave that came upon me again buried me at once 
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel 
myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards 
the shore a very great way ; but I held my breath and as- 
sisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I 
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt 
myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my 
head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water, 
and though it was not two seconds of time that I could keep 
myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and 
new courage. I was covered again with water a good while, 
but not so long but I held it out, and finding the water had 
spent itself and began to return, I struck forward against 
the return of the waves and felt ground again with my feet. 
I stood still a few moments to recover breath and till the 
water went from me, and then took to my heels and run 
with what strength I had farther towards the shore. But 
neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, 
which came pouring in after me again, and twice more I w'as 
lifted up by the waves and carried forwards as before, the 
shore being very fiat. 

The last time of these two had well near been fatal to me ; 
for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed me, 
or rather dashed me against a piece of a rock, and that with 
such force, as it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as 
to my own deliverance ; for the blow taking my side and 


42 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


breast, beat the breath' as it were quite out of my body ; and 
had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled 
in the water; but I recovered a little before the return of 
the waves, and seeing I should be covered again with the 
water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so 
to hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went back. 
Now as the waves were not so high as at first, being near 
land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched 
another run which brought me so near the shore, that the 
next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow 
me up as to carry me away, and the next run I took, I got 
to the main land, where, to my great comfort, I clambered 
up the cliffs of the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, 
free from danger, and quite out of the reach of the water. 

I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look 
up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein 
there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope. I 
believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ec- 
stacies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as 
I may say, out of the very grave ; and I do not wonder now 
at that custom, viz : That when a malefactor, who has the 
halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned 
off, and has a reprieve brought to him. I Say, I do not 
wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him bleed 
that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may 
not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm 
him. For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first. 

I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my 
whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in the contempla- 
tion of my deliverance, making a thousand gestures and 
motions which I cannot describe, reflecting upon all my 
comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be 
one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw 
them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their 
hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. 

I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the breach 
and froth of the sea being so big I could hardly see it, it 
lay so far off, and considered, Lord ! how was it possible I 
could get on shore ? 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


43 


After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of 
my condition, I began to look round me to see what kind of 
place I was in, and what was next to be done, and I soon 
found my comforts abate, and that in a word I had a dread- 
ful deliverance. For I was wet, had no clothes to shift 
me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me, 
neither did I see any prospect before me but that of 
perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts ; 
and that which was particularly afflicting to me, was, 
that I had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature 
for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other 
creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a 
word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco pipe, 
and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions, 
and this threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that for a 
while I ran about like a mad man. Night coming upon me, I 
began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot if 
there were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at 
night they always come abroad for their prey. 

All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time, 
was to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, 
which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, 
and consider the next day what death I should die, for as 
yet I saw no prospect of life ; I w r alked about a furlong from 
the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink, 
which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a 
little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the 
tree, and getting up into it, endeavored to place myself so 
as that if I should sleep I might not fall ; and having cut 
me a short stick, like a trucheon, for my defence, I took up 
my lodging, and having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast 
asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have 
done in my condition, and found myself the most refreshed 
with it, that I think I ever was on such an occasion. 

When I woke it was broad day, the whether clear, and the 
storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as 
before ; but that which surprised me most, was, that the 
ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lav, 
by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far 


44 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


as the rock which I first mentioned, where I had been so 
bruised by the dashing me against it; this being within 
about a mile from the shore where I was, and the ship seem- 
ing to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that, at 
least, I might have some necessary things for my use. 

When f came down from my apartment in the tree, I 
looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the 
boat, which lay as the wind and the sea had tossed her up 
upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked 
as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her, but 
found a neck or inlet of water between me and the boat, 
which was about half a mile broad, so I came back for the 
present, being more intent upon getting at the ship, where I 
hoped to find something for my present subsistence. 

A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide 
ebbed so far out, that I could come within a quarter of a 
mile of the ship ; and here I found a fresh renewing of my 
grief, for I saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we 
had been all safe, that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, 
and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirely desti- 
tute of all comfort and company, as I now was ; this forced 
tears from my eyes again, but as there was little relief in 
that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship, so I pulled off 
my clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took 
the water ; but when I came to the ship, my difficulty was 
still greater to know how to get on board, for as she lay 
aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing 
within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, 
and the second time I spied a small piece of a rope, which I 
wondered I did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains 
so low, as that with great difficulty I got hold of it, and by 
the help of that rope, got up into the forcastle of the ship. 
Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal 
of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a 
bank of hard sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted 
up upon the bank, and her head low almost to the water ; by 
this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that 
part was dry ; for you may be sure my first work was to 
search and to see what was spoiled and what was free ; and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


45 

first I found that all the ship’s provisions were dry and un- 
touched by the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I 
went to the bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuit, 
and eat it as I went about other things, for I had no time to 
lose ; I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I 
took a large dram, and which I had indeed need enough of 
to spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted noth- 
ing but a boat to furnish myself with many things which I 
foresaw would be very necessary to me. 

It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be 
had, and this extremity roused my application; we had seve- 
ral spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a 
spare top-mast or two in the ship. I resolved to fall to work 
with these, and flung as many of them overboard as I could 
manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope that 
they might not drive away; when this was done I went down 
the ship’s side, and pulling them to me, I tied four of them 
fast together at both ends as well as I could, in the form of 
a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon 
them crossways, I found I could walk upon it very well, but 
that it was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces be- 
ing too light ; so I went to work, and with the carpenter’s 
saw I cut a spare top-mast into three lengths, and added 
them to my raft, with a great deal of labor and pains ; but 
hope of furnishing myself with necessaries, encouraged me 
to go beyond what I should have been able to have done 
upon another occasion. 

My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable 
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how to 
preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but I 
was not long considering this. I first laid all the planks or 
boards upon it that I could get, and having considered well 
what I most wanted, I first got three of the seamen’s chests, 
which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered them 
down upon my raft; the first of these I filled with provi- 
sions, viz: bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of 
dried goat’s flesh, which we lived much upon, and a little re- 
mainder of European corn which had been laid by for some 
fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls were 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


46 

killed. There had been some barley and wheat together, 
but, to my great disappointment, I found afterwards that the 
rats had eaten or spoiled it all ; as for liquors, I found seve- 
ral cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were 
some cordial waters, and in all about five or six gallons of 
rack ; these I stowed by themselves, there being no need to 
put them into the chest, nor no room for them. While I 
was doing this, I found the tide began to flow, though very 
calm, and I had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and 
waist-coat, which I had left on shore upon the sand, swim 
away; as for my breeches which were only linen and open- 
kneed, I swam on board in them and my stockings. How- 
ever this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I 
found enough, but took no more than I wanted for present 
use, for I had other things which my eye was more upon, as 
first, tools to work with on shore; and it was after long 
searching that I found out the carpenter’s chest, which was 
indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable 
than a ship loading of gold would have been at that time; I 
got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing 
time to look into it, for I knew in general what it contained. 

My next care was for some ammunition, and arms ; there 
were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and 
two pistols ; these I secured first, with some powder-horns, 
and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew 
there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not 
where our gunner had stowed them, but with much search 
I found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken 
water; those two I got to my raft, with the arms, and now I 
thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how 
I should get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, or 
rudder, and the least cap full of wind would have overset all 
my navigation. 

I had three encouragements. 1. A smooth, calm sea, 
2. The tide rising and setting in to the shore. 3. What 
little wind there was blew me towards the land ; and thus, 
having found two or three broken oars belonging to the 
boat, and besides the tools which were in the chest, I found 
two saws, an axe, and a hammer, and with this cargo I put 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


47 


to sea. For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, 
only that I found it drive a little distance from the place 
where I had landed before, by which I perceived that there 
was some indraft of the water, and consequently I hoped to 
find some creek or river there, which I might make use of as 
a port to get to land with my cargo. 

As I imagined, so it was; there appeared before me a 
little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of 
the tide set into it, so I guided my raft as well as I could to 
keep in the middle of the stream. But here I had like to 
have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if I had, I think 
verily would have broke my heart, for knowing nothing of 
the coast, my raft run aground at one end of it upon a shoal, 
and not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a 
little that all my cargo had slipped off towards that end that 
was afloat, and so fallen into the water. I did my utmost 
by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their 
places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength, 
neither durst I stir from the posture I was in, but holding up 
the chests with all my might, stood in that manner near half 
an hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a 
little more upon a level, and a little after, the water still 
rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her off with the 
oar I had, into the channel, and then driving up higher, I 
at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with 
land on both sides, and a strong current or tide running up. 
I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for 
I was not willing to be driven too high up the river, hoping 
in time to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to 
place myself as near the coast as I could. 

At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the 
creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my 
raft, and at last got so near, as that, reaching ground with 
my oar, I could thrust her directly in, but here I had like to 
have dipped all my cargo in the sea again ; for that shore 
lying pretty steep, that is to say, sloping, there was no place 
to land, but where one end of my float, if it run on shore, 
would lie so high, and the other sink lower as before, that 
it would endanger my cargo again. All that I could do, was 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


48 

to wait until the tide was at the highest, keeping the raft 
with my oar like an anchor to hold the side of it fast to the 
shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the 
water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as I found 
water enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, I 
thrust her on upon that flat piece of ground, and there 
fastened or moored her by sticking my two broken oars into 
the ground ; one on one side near one end, and one on the 
other side near the other end ; and thus I lay until the 
water ebbed away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on 
shore. 

My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper 
place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods to 
secure them from whatever might happen. Where I was I 
yet knew not, whether on the continent or on an island, 
whether inhabited or not inhabited, whether in danger of 
wild beasts or not. There was a hill not above a mile from 
me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed 
to over-top some other hills which lay as in a ridge from it 
northward ; I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of 
the pistols, and an horn of powder, and thus armed I 
traveled for discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after 
I had with great labor and difficulty got to the top, I saw my 
fate to my great affliction, viz: that I was in an island 
environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except 
some rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands 
less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west. 

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and as I 
saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild- 
beasts, of whom, however, I saw none, yet I saw abundance 
of fowls, but knew not their kinds, neither when I killed 
them could I tell what was fit for food, and what not ; at my 
coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon 
a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first 
gun that had been fired there since the creation of the 
world ; I had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the 
wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many 
sorts, making a confused screaming, and crying every one 
according to his usual note ; but not one of them of any kind 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


49 


that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a 
kind of a hawk, its color and beak resembling it, but had no 
talons or claws more than common ; its flesh was carrion, 
and fit for nothing. 

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, 
and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me 
up the rest of that day, and what to do with myself at night 
I knew not, nor indeed where to rest ; for I was afraid to 
lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast 
might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was 
really no need for those fears. 

However, as well I could, I barricaded myself round with 
the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and 
made a kind of a hut for that night’s lodging; as for food, I 
yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that I had 
seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood 
where I shot the fowl. 

I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many 
things out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and 
particularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other 
things as might come to land, and I resolved to make an- 
other voyage on board the vessel, if possible; and as I 
knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break 
her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart, till 
I got everything out of the ship that I could get. Then I 
called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts, whether I 
should take back the raft, but this appeared impracticable; 
so I resolved to go as before, when the tide was down, and 
I did so, only that I stripped before I went from my hut, 
having nothing on but a checkered shirt, and a pair of linen 
drawers, and a pair of pumps on my feet. 

I got on board the ship, as before, and prepared a second 
raft, and having had experience of the first, I neither made 
this so unweildy, nor loaded it so hard ; but yet I brought 
away several things very useful to me : as first, in the car- 
penter’s stores I found two or three bags full of nails and 
spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and 
above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone. All 
these I secured, together with several things belonging to 


50 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

the gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and two 
barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, and another fowl- 
ing-piece, with some small quantity of powder more ; a large 
bag full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet lead ; but 
this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to get it over 
the ship’s side. 

Besides these things, I took all the men’s clothes that I 
could find, and a spare fore-top-sail, a hammock, and some 
bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and 
brought them all safe on shore to my very great comfort. 

I was under some apprehensions during my absence from 
the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on 
shore ; but when I came back, I found no sign of any vis- 
itor, only there sat a creature like a wild cat upon one of the 
chests, which when I came towards it, ran away a little dis- 
tance, and then stood still. She sat very composed and 
unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a 
mind to be acquainted with me. I presented my gun at her, 
but as she did not understand it, she was perfectly uncon- 
cerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away. Upon which I 
tossed her a bit of biscuit, though by the way, I was not very 
free of it, for my store was not great. However, I spared 
her a bit, I say, and she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, 
and looked as pleased for more; but I thanked her, and 
could share no more ; so she marched off. 

Having got my second cargo on shore, though I was fain 
to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, 
for they were too heavy, being large casks, I went to work 
to make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which I 
cut for that purpose, and into this tent I brought everything 
that I knew would spoil, either with rain or sun, and I piled 
all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, 
to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either from man or 
beast. 

When I had done this I blocked up the door of the tent 
with some boards within, and an empty chest set up on end 
without, and spreading one of the beds upon the ground, lay- 
ing my two pistols just at my head, and my gun at length by 
me, I went to bed for the first time, and slept very quietly 


DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEfTH. 



ROBINSON CRUSOE 


UPON HIS RAFT. 


Page 51. 















i 








j. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


51 

all night, for I was very weary and heavy, for the night be- 
fore I had slept little, and had labored very hard all day, as 
well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to get them 
on shore. 

I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever were 
laid up, I believe, for one man, but I was not satisfied still; 
for while the ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I 
ought to get everything out of her that I could, so every day 
at low water I went on board, and brought away some thing 
or other. But particularly the third time I went, I brought 
away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all the small 
ropes and rope-twine I could get, with a piece of spare can- 
vas, which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the 
barrel of wet gun-powder. In a word, I brought away all 
the sails first and last, only that I was fain to cut them in 
pieces, and bring as much at a time as I could ; for they 
were no more useful to be sails, but as mere canvas only. 

But that which comforted me more still, was, that at last 
of all, after I had made five or six such voyages as these, 
and thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship 
that was worth meddling with, I say, after all this, I found a 
great hogshead of bread, and three large runlets of rum or 
spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour ; this 
was surprising to me, because I had given over expecting 
any more provisions, except what was spoiled by the water. 
I soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it 
up parcel by parcel in pieces of the sails, which I cut out; 
and in a word, I got all this safe on shore also. 

The next day I made another voyage; and now having 
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, 
I began with the cables, and cutting the great cable into 
pieces, such as I could move, I got two cables and a hawser 
on shore, with all the iron work I could get; and having cut 
down the spritsail-yard, and the mizzen-yard, and everything 
I could to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those heavy 
goods and came away. But my good luck began now to 
leave me, for this raft was so unwieldy, and so overloaden, 
that after I was entered the little cove, where I had landed 
the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it so handily as 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 

I did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo 
into the water ; as for myself it was no great harm, for I was 
near the shore, but as to my cargo, it was great part of it 
lost, especially the iron, which I expected would have been 
of great use to me. However, when the tide was out, I got 
most of the pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, 
though with infinite labor; for I was fain to dip for it into 
the water, a work which fatigued me very much. After this 
I went every day on board, and brought away what I could 
get. 

I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been 
eleven times on board the ship, in which time I had brought 
away all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capa- 
ble to bring; though I believe verily, had the calm weather 
held, I should have brought away the whole ship piece by 
piece. But preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I 
found the wind begin to rise ; however, at low water I went 
on board, and though I thought I had rummaged the cabin 
so effectually, as that nothing more could be found, yet I 
discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which I 
found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissors, 
with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks ; in an- 
other I found about thirty-six pounds value in money, some 
European coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, 
some silver. 

I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. O drug ! said 
I, aloud, what art thou good for ? Thou art not worth to me, 
no, not the taking off of the ground ; one of those knives is 
worth all this heap ; I have no manner of use for thee ; even 
remain where thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature 
whose life is not worth saving. However, upon second 
thoughts, I took it away, and wrapping all this in a piece of 
canvas, I began to think of making another raft, but while I 
was preparing this, I found the sky overcast, and the wind 
began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh 
gale from the shore ; it presently occurred to me, that it was 
in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore, 
and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of 
flood began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


S3 


shore at all ; accordingly I let myself down into the water, 
and swam cross the channel, which lay between the ship and 
the sands, and even that with difficulty enough, partly with 
the weight of the things I had about me, and partly the 
roughness of the water, for the wind rose very hastily, and 
before it was quite high water, it blew a storm. 

But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay 
with all my wealth about me very secure. It blew very hard 
all that night, and in the morning when I looked out, behold 
no more ship was to be seen. I was a little surprised, but 
recovered myself with this satisfactory reflection, viz : that I 
had lost no time, nor abated no diligence to get everything 
out of her that could be useful to me, and that indeed there 
was little left in her that I was able to bring away, if I had 
had more time. 

I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any- 
thing out of her, except what might drive on shore from her 
wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her afterwards did; but 
those things were of small use to me. 

My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing 
myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild 
beasts, if any were in the island ; and I had many thoughts 
of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to 
make, whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or 
a tent upon the earth ; and, in short, I resolved upon both, 
the manner and description of which it may not be improper 
to give an account of. 

I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, 
particularly because it was upon a low moorish ground near 
the sea, and I believed would not be wholesome, and more 
particularly because there was no fresh water near it, so I 
resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of 
ground. 

I consulted several things in my situation which I found 
would be proper for me. First, health, and fresh water I 
just now mentioned. Secondly, shelter from the heat of the 
sun. Thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether 
men or beasts. Fourthly, a view to the sea, that if God sent 
any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


54 

deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my 
expectation yet. 

In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain 
on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little 
plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come 
down upon me from the top ; on the side of this rock there 
was a hollow place worn a little way in, like the entrance or 
door of a cave, but there was not really any cave or way into 
the rock at all. 

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I 
resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above an 
hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a 
green before my door, and at the end of it descended irregu- 
larly every way down into the low grounds by the seaside. 
It was on the N. N. W. side of the hill, so that I was shel- 
tered from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S. 
sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near the 
setting. 

Before I set up my tent I drew a half circle before the 
hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi- 
diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, 
from its beginning and ending. 

In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, 
driving them into the ground till they stood very firm, like 
piles, the biggest end being out of the ground about five 
feet and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows 
did not stand above six inches from one another. 

Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the 
ship and laid them in rows one upon another within the 
circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, plac- 
ing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about 
two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post, and this fence 
was so strong that neither man nor beast could get into it or 
over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labor, espe- 
cially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, 
and drive them into the earth. 

The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, 
but by a short ladder to go over the top, which ladder, when 
I was in, I lifted over after me; and so I was completely 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


55 

fenced in and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and 
consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I 
could not have done, though, as it appeared afterward, there 
was no need of all this caution from the enemies that I ap- 
prehended danger from. 

Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labor, I carried 
all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition and stores, of 
which you have the account above; and I made me a large 
tent, which, to preserve me from the rains that in one part 
of the year are very violent there, I made double, viz: one 
smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, and covered 
the uppermost with a large tarpaulin which I had saved 
among the sails. 

And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had 
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was, indeed, a 
very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship. 

Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything 
that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all 
my goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had left 
open, and so passed and re-passed, as I said, by a short 
ladder. 

When I had done this I began to work my way into the 
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down 
out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence in the 
nature of a terrace, that so it raised the ground within about 
a foot and a half, and thus I made me a cave just behind my 
tent, which served me like a cellar to my house. 

It cost me much labor and many days before all these 
things were brought to perfection, and therefore I must go 
back to some other things which took up some of my 
thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had laid 
my scheme for the setting up my tent and making the cave, 
that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud, a sud- 
den flash of lightning happened, and after that a great clap 
of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I was not so 
much surprised with the lightning as I was with a thought 
Which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself: 
“Oh, my powder!” My very heart sunk within me when I 
thought that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


56 

on which not my defence only but the providing me food, as 
I thought, entirely depended. 1 was nothing near so anx- 
ious about my own danger, though, had the powder took 
fire, I had never known who had hurt me. 

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the 
storm was over I laid aside all my works, my building and 
fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes to 
separate the powder and keep it a little and a little in a par- 
cel, in hope that whatever might come it might not all take 
fire at once, and to keep it so apart that it should not be 
possible to make one part fire another. I finished this work 
in about a fortnight, and I think my powder, which in all 
was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, was di- 
vided in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel 
that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from 
that, so I placed it in my new cave, which in my fancy I 
called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down in holes 
among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking 
very carefully where I laid it. 

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out 
once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert my- 
self, as to see if I could kill anything fit for food, and as 
near as I could to acquaint myself with what the island pro- 
duced. The first time I went out I presently discovered 
that there were goats in the island, which was a great sat- 
isfaction to me ; but then it was attended with this misfor- 
tune to me, viz : That they were so shy, so subtle, and so 
swift of foot, that it was the difficultest thing in the world to 
come at them. But I was not discouraged at this, not 
doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it soon 
happened, for after I had found their haunts a little, I laid 
wait in this manner for them. I observed if they saw me in 
the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would 
run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in 
the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took no notice 
of me, from whence I concluded, that by the position of 
their optics, their sight was so directed downward, that they 
did not readily see objects that were above them. So after- 
ward 1 took this method : I always climbed the rocks first to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


57 


get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark. The 
first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat, 
which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to, which 
grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid 
stood stock still by her till I came and took her up, and not 
only so, but when I carried the old one with me upon my 
shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure, upon 
which I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms, 
and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up 
tame, but it would not eat, so I was forced to kill it and eat 
it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, 
for I eat sparingly, and saved my provisions (my bread 
especially) as much as possibly I could. 

Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely 
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to 
burn ; and what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my 
cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full 
account of in its place; but I must first give some little 
account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which 
it may well be supposed were not a few. 

I had a dismal prospect of my condition, for as I was not 
cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said, 
by a violent storm quite out of the course of our intended 
voyage, and a great way, viz : some hundreds of leagues out 
of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I had great 
reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in 
this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should 
end my life. The tears would run plentifully down my face 
when I made these reflections ; and sometimes I would 
expostulate with myself, why Providence should thus com- 
pletely ruin its creatures, and render them so absolutely 
miserable, so without help abandoned, so entirely depressed 
that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a 
life. 

But something always returned swift upon me to check 
these thoughts, and to reprove me ; and particularly one 
day walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside, I was 
very pensive upon the subject of my present condition, 
when reason as it were, expostulated with me the other 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


58 

way, thus: Well, you are in a desolate condition, ’t is true, 
but pray remember, where are the rest of you ? Did not 
you come eleven of you into the boat ? where are the ten ? 
Why were not they saved, and you lost ? Why were you 
singled out? Is it better to be here or there? and then I 
pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the 
good that is in them, and with what worse attends them. 

Then it occurred to me again, how well 1 was furnished 
for my subsistence, and what would have been my case 
if it had not happened, which was an hundred thousand to 
one, that the ship floated from the place where she first 
struck and was driven so near to the shore that I had time 
to get all these things out of her. What would have been 
my case, if I had been to have lived in the condition in 
which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, 
or necessaries to supply and procure them? Particularly, 
said I aloud (though to myself), what should I had done 
without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools to 
make anything, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a 
tent, or any manner of covering, and that now I had all 
these to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to pro- 
vide myself in such a manner, as to live without my gun 
when my ammunition was spent ; so that I had a tolerable 
view of subsisting without any want as long as I lived ; for 
I considered from the beginning how I would provide for 
the accidents that might happen, and for the time that was 
to come, even not only after my ammunition should be spent, 
but even after my health or strength should decay. 

I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammuni- 
tion being destroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being 
blown up by lightning, and this made the thoughts of it so 
surprising to me when it lightened and thundered, as I 
observed just now. 

And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a 
scene of silent life, such perhaps as was never heard of in 
the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and 
continue it in its order. It was, by my account, the 30th of 
September, when, in the manner as abovesaid, I first set 
foot upon this horrid island, when the sun being, to us, in 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


59 


its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head, for I 
reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 
degrees 22 minutes north of the line. 

After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came 
into my thoughts, that I should lose my reckoning of time 
for want of books and pen and ink, and should even forget 
the Sabbath days from the working days ; but to prevent 
this, I cut it with my knife upon a large post, in capital 
letters, and making it into a great cross, I set it up on the 
shore where I first landed, viz : I came on shore here on 
the 30th of September, 1659. Upon the sides of this square 
post, I cut every day a notch with my knife, and every 
seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first 
day of the month as long again as that long one, and thus I 
kept my calender, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning 
of time. 

In the next place we are to observe, that among the many 
things which I brought out of the ship in the several 
voyages, which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got 
several things of less value, but not all less useful to me, 
which I omitted setting down before ; as in particular, pens, 
ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain’s, mate’s, 
gunner’s, and carpenter’s keeping, three or four compasses, 
some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, 
and books of navigation, all which I huddled together, 
whether I might want them or not ; also, I found three very 
good bibles which came to me in my cargo from England, 
and which I had packed up among my things ; some 
Portuguese books also, and among them two or three Popish 
prayer-books, and several other books, all which I carefully 
secured. And I must not forget, that we had in the ship a 
dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have 
occasion to say something in its place; for I carried both the 
cats with me ; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship 
of himself, and swam on shore to me the day after I went 
on shore with my first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me 
many years ; I wanted nothing that he could fetch me, nor 
any company that he could make up to me ; I only wanted to 
have him talk to me, but that would not do. As I observed 


6o 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


before, I found pen, ink and paper, and I husbanded them 
to the utmost; and I shall show, that while my ink lasted, I 
kept things very exact ; but after that was gone, I could not, 
for I could not make any ink, by any means that I could 
devise. 

And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, not- 
withstanding all that I had amassed together, and of these 
this of ink was one, as also spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to 
dig or remove the earth, needles, pins and thread ; as for 
linen, I soon learned to want that without much difficulty. 

This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, 
and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished 
my little pale, or surrounded habitation. The piles, or 
stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long 
time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more by far 
in bringing home, so that I spent sometimes two days in 
cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third 
da£ in driving it into the ground, for which purpose I got a 
heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself of 
one of the iron crows, which, however, though I found it, 
yet it made driving those posts, or piles, very laborious and 
tedious work. 

But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness 
of anything I had to do seeing I had time enough to do it 
in; nor had I any other employment if that had been 
over, at least that I could foresee, except the ranging 
the island to seek for food, which I did more or less 
every day. 

I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the 
circumstance I was reduced to, and I drew up the state of 
my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that 
were to come after me, for I was like to have but few heirs, 
as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them and 
affecting my mind; and as my reason began now to master 
my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I 
could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have 
something to distinguish my case from worse, and I stated 
it very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I 
enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus : 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


61 


EVIL. 

I am cast upon a horrible, 
desolate island, void of all 
hope of recovery. 

I am singled out and sep- 
arated, as it were, from all 
the world, to be miserable. 


I am divided from man- 
kind, a solitaire, one ban- 
ished from human society. 

I have not clothes to cover 
me. 

I am without any defence 
or means to resist any vio- 
lence of man or beast. 


I have no soul to speak to 
or relieve me. 


GOOD. 

But I am alive and not 
drowned, as all my ship’s 
company were. 

But I am singled out, too, 
from all the ship’s crew to be 
spared from death; and He 
that miraculously saved me 
from death can deliver me 
from this condition. 

But I am not starved and 
perishing on a barren place, 
affording no sustenance. 

But I am in a hot climate, 
where, if I had clothes, I 
could hardly wear them. 

But I am cast on an island 
where I see no wild beasts 
to hurt me, as I saw on the 
coast of Africa; and what 
if I had been shipwrecked 
there ? 

But God wonderfully sent 
the ship in near enough to 
the shore that I have gotten 
out so many necessary things 
as will either supply my 
wants or enable me to sup- 
ply myself, even as long as 
I live. 


Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that 
there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, 
but there was something negative or something positive to 
be thankful for in it ; and let this stand as a direction from 
the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in 
this world, that we may always find in it something to 
comfort ourselves from, and to set in the description of 
good and evil, on the credit side of the account. 


62 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Having now brought my mind a little to relish my con- 
dition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could 
spy a ship; I say, giving over these things, I began to apply 
myself to accommodate my way of living, and to make things 
as easy to me as I could. 

I have already described my habitation, which was a tent 
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of 
posts and cables, but I might now rather call it a wall, for I 
raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two foot 
thick on the outside, and after some time, I think it was a 
year and half, I raised rafters from it leaning to the rock, 
and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such 
things as I could get to keep out the rain, which I found at 
sometimes of the year very violent. 

I have already observed how I brought all my goods into 
this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me. 
But I must observe too that at first this was a confused 
heap of goods, which as they lay in no order, so they took 
up all my place ; I had no room to turn myself ; so I set 
myself to enlarge my cave and works farther into the earth ; 
for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the 
labor I bestowed on it. And so when I found I was pretty 
safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways to the right 
hand into the rock; and then turning to the right again, 
worked quite out, and made me a door to come out, on the 
outside of my pale or fortification. 

This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were a 
back-way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room 
to stow my goods. 

And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary 
things as I found I most wanted, as particularly a chair and 
a table ; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few 
comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do 
several things with so much pleasure without a table. 

So I went to work; and here I must # needs observe, that 
as reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, 
so by stating and squaring every thing by reason, and by 
making the most rational judgment of things, every man 
may be in time master of every mechanic art. I had never 



■fe 


DRAWN BY T 


STOTHARD. R. A 


ENGRAVED BY C 


HEATH, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AT WORK IN HIS CAVE. 


Page 62 


























ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


63 

handled a tool in my life, and yet in time by labor, applica- 
tion and contrivance, I found at last that 1 wanted nothing but 
I could have made it, especially if I had had tools; however, 
I made abundance of things, even without tools, and some 
with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which per- 
haps were never made that way before, and that with infinite 
labor. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other 
way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and 
hew it fiat on either side with my axe, till I had brought it 
to be thin as a plank, and then dubb it smooth with my adze. 
It is true by this method I could make but one board out of 
a whole tree, but this I had no remedy for but patience, any 
more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and labor 
which it took me up to make a plank or board. But my 
time or labor was little worth, and so it was as well employed 
one way as another. 

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed 
above, in the first place, and this I did out of the short 
pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. 
But when I had wrought out some boards, as above, I made 
large shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over 
another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, 
nails, and iron-work, and in a word, to separate every thing 
at large in their places, that I might come easily at them; 
I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns 
and all things that would hang up. 

So that had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a gen- 
eral magazine of all necessary things, and I had everything so 
ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see 
all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock 
of all necessaries so great. 

And now it was when I began to keep a journal of every 
day’s employment, for indeed at first I was in too much 
hurry, and not only hurry as to labor, but in too much dis- 
composure of mind, and my journal would have been full of 
many dull things. For example, I must have said thus: 
September the 30th. After I got to shore and had escaped 
drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my deliver- 
ance, having first vomited with the great quantity of salt 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


64 

water which was gotten into my stomach, and recovering 
myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringing my hands and 
beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and cry- 
ing out I was undone, undone, till tired and faint I was forced 
to lie down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep for 
fear of being devoured. 

Some days after this, and after I had been on board the 
ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not for- 
bear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking 
out to sea in hopes of seeing a ship, then fancy at a vast 
distance I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, 
and then after looking steadily until I was almost blind, lose 
it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase 
my misery by my folly. 

But having gotten over these things in some measure, and 
having settled my household stuff and habitation, made me 
a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I 
could, I began to keep my journal, of which I shall here give 
you the copy (though in it will be told all these particulars 
over again) as long as it lasted, for having no more ink I 
was forced to leave it off. 

THE JOURNAL. 

September 30, 1659. I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe, 
being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm, in the offing, 
came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I 
called the Island of Despair, all the rest of the ship’s com- 
pany being drowned, and myself almost dead. 

All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the 
dismal circumstances I was brought to, viz: I had neither 
food, house, clothes, weapon, or place to fly to, and in de- 
spair of any relief, saw nothing but death before me, either 
that I should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by sav- 
ages, or starved to death for want of food. At the approach 
of night, I slept in a tree for fear of wild creatures, but slept 
soundly though it rained all night. 

October 1. In the morning I saw to my great surprise 
the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on 
shore again much nearer the island, which as it was some 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


65 

comfort on one hand, for seeing her sit upright, and not 
broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get on 
board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for my 
relief; so on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss 
of my comrades, who I imagined if we had all staid on board 
might have saved the ship, or at least that they would not 
have been all drowned as they were ; and that had the men 
been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat out of the 
ruins of the ship, to have carried us to some other part of 
the world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing my- 
self on these things ; but at length, seeing the ship almost 
dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam 
on board ; this day also it continued raining, though with no 
wind at all. 

From the ist of October to the 24th. All these days en- 
tirely spent in many several voyages to get all I could out of 
the ship, which I brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon 
rafts. Much rain also in these days, though with some in- 
tervals of fair weather. But it seems this was the rainy 
season. 

October 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had 
got upon it, but being in shoal water, and the things being 
chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them when the tide was 
out. 

October 25. It rained all night and all day, with some 
gusts of wind, during which time the ship broke in pieces, 
the wind blowing a little harder than before, and was no 
more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at 
low water. I spent this day in covering and securing the 
goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil them. 

October 26. I walked about the shore almost all day to 
find out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to 
secure myself from an attack in the night, either from wild 
beasts or men. Towards night 1 fixed upon a proper place 
under a rock, and marked out a semi-circle for my encamp- 
ment, which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or 
fortification made of double piles, lined within with cables, 
and without with turf. 

From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying 
3 


66 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the 
time it rained exceeding hard. 

The 31st, in the morning I went out into the island with 
my gun to see for some food, and discover the country; 
when I killed a she goat, and her kid followed me home, 
which I afterwards killed also, because it would not feed. 

.November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and lay 
there for the first night, making it as large as I could with 
stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon. 

November 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and the 
pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with them formed 
a fence round me, a little within the place I had marked out 
for my fortification. 

November 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two 
fowls like ducks which were very good food. In the after- 
noon went to work to make me a table. 

November 4. This morning I began to order my times 
of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time 
of diversion, viz: Every morning I walked out with my gun 
for two or three hours if it did not rain, then employed 
myself to work till about eleven o’clock, then eat what I had 
to live on, and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the 
weather being excessive hot, and then in the evening to 
work again ; the working part of this day and of the next 
were wholly employed in making my table, for I was yet but 
a very sorry workman, though time and necessity made me 
a complete natural mechanic soon after, as I believe it would 
do any one else. 

November 5. This day went abroad with my gun and my 
dog, and killed a wild cat, her skin pretty soft, but her flesh 
good for nothing. Every creature I killed, I took off the 
skins and preserved them. Coming back by the seashore, I 
saw many sorts of sea fowls, which I did not understand ; 
but was surprised, and almost frighted with two or three 
seals, which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing what 
they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that time. 

November 6. After my morning walk I went to work 
with my table again, and finished it, though not to my liking; 
nor was it long before I learnt to mend it. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


67 

November 7. Now it begun to be settled fair weather. 
The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th, (for the nth was 
Sunday). I took wholly up to make me a chair, and with 
much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please 
me ; and even in the making I pulled it in pieces several 
times. Note. — I soon neglected m^ keeping Sundays, for 
omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot which was 
which. 

November 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me ex- 
ceedingly, and cooled the earth, but it was accompanied with 
terrible thunder and lightning, which frighted me dreadfully, 
for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over, I resolved to 
separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as 
possible, that it might not be in danger. 

November 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in mak- 
ing little square chests, or boxes, which might hold about a 
pound, or two pounds at most, of powder ; and so, putting 
the powder in, I stowed it in places as secure and remote 
from one another as possible. On one of these three days I 
killed a large bird that was good to eat, but I know not 
what to call it. 

November 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent 
into the rock, to make room for my farther conveniency. 
Note. — STree things I wanted exceedingly for this work, 
viz: a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or basket, so I 
desisted from my work and began to consider how to supply 
that want and make me some tools. As for a pick-axe, I 
made use of the iron crows, which were proper enough 
though heavy. But the next thing was a shovel or spade. 
This was so absolutely necessary that, indeed, I could do 
nothing effectually without it; but what kind of one to make 
I knew not. 

November 18. The next day in searching the woods I 
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils 
they call the iron tree, for its exceeding hardness ; of this, 
with great labor and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, 
and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for it was 
exceeding heavy. 

The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no other 


68 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


way, made me a long while upon this machine, for I worked 
it effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or 
spade, the handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only 
that the broad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it 
would not last me so long. However, it served well enough 
for the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but never 
was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so long 
a making. 

I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheel- 
barrow; a basket I could not make by any means, having no 
such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker ware, 
— at least, none yet found out; and as to a wheelbarrow, I 
fancied I could make all but the wheel, but that I had no 
notion of, neither did I know how to go about it; besides I 
had no possible way to make the iron gudgeons for the 
spindle or axis of the wheel to run in, so I gave it over; 
and so for carrying away the earth which I dug out of the 
cave I made me a thing like a hod which the laborers carry 
mortar in when they serve the bricklayers. 

This was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel; 
and yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt which I made 
in vain to make a wheelbarrow took me up no less than four 
days, — I mean, always, excepting my morning walk with my 
gun, which I seldom failed, and very seldom failed, also, 
bringing home something fit to eat. 

November 23. My other work having now stood still be- 
cause of my making these tools, when they were finished I 
went on, and working every day as my strength and time 
allowed, I spent eighteen days entirely in widening and 
deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods com- 
modiously. 

Note.— During all this time I worked to make this room, 
or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a ware- 
house, or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room and a cellar. 
As for my lodging, I kept to the tent, except that sometimes 
in the wet season of the year it rained so hard that I could 
not keep myself dry, which caused me afterwards to cover 
all my place within my pale with long poles in the form of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 69 

rafters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags 
and large leaves of trees, like a thatch. 

December 10. I began- now to think my cave, or vault, 
finished, when, on a sudden, (it seems I had made it too 
large,) a great quantity of earth fell down from the top and 
one side, so much that, in short, it frighted me, and not 
without reason, too, for if I had been under it I had never 
wanted a grave-digger. Upon this disaster I had a great 
deal of work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to 
carry out, and which was of more importance, I had the 
ceiling to prop up, so that I might be sure no more would 
come down. 

December 11. This day I went to work with it accord- 
ingly, and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the 
top, with two pieces of boards across over each post. This 
I finished the next day, and setting more posts up with 
boards, in about a week more I had the roof secured ; and 
the posts standing in rows served me for partitions to part 
off my house. 

December 17. From this day to the twentieth I placed 
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts to hang every- 
thing up that could be hung up, and now I began to be in 
some order within doors. 

December 20. Now I carried everything into the cave, 
and began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of 
boards, like a dresser, to order my victuals upon, but boards 
began to be very scarce with me ; also I made me another 
table. 

December 24. Much rain all night and all day, no stir- 
ing out. 

December 25. Rain all day. 

December 26. No rain, and the earth much cooler than 
before and pleasanter. 

December 27. Killed a young goat, and lamed another 
so that I caught it, and led it home in a string. When I 
had it home, I bound and splintered up its leg which was 
broke. N. B. — I took such care of it, that it lived, and the 
leg grew well, and as strong as ever ; but by my nursing it 
so long it grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


70 

door, and would not go away. This was the first time that 
I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures, 
that I might have food when my powder and shot was all 
spent. 

December 28, 29, 30. Great heats and no breeze ; so that 
there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening for food. 
This time I spent in putting all my things in order within 
doors. 

January 1. Very hot still, but I went abroad early and 
late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. 
This evening, going farther into the valleys which lay to- 
wards the center of the island, I found there was plenty of 
goats, though exceeding shy and hard to come at ; however, 
1 resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them 
down. 

January 2. Accordingly, the next day, I went out with 
my dog, and set him upon the goats ; but I was mistaken, 
for they all faced about upon the dog, and he knew his 
danger too well, for he would not come near them. 

January 3. I began my fence or wall ; which, being still 
jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to 
make very thick and strong. 

N. B. — This wall being described before, I purposely 
omit what was said in the journal. It is sufficient to ob- 
serve, that I was no less time than from the third of January 
to the fourteenth of April, working, finishing and perfecting 
this wall, though it was no more than about twenty-four 
yards in length, being a half circle from one place in the 
rock to another place about eight yards from it, the door of 
the cave being in the centre behind it. 

All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me 
many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but I thought 
I should never be perfectly secure till this wall was fin- 
ished; and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labor 
everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out 
of the woods, and driving them into the ground, for I made 
them much bigger than I need to have done. 

When this wall was finished, and the outside double 
fenced with a turf wall raised up close to it, I persuaded 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


7 1 

myself that if any people were to come on shore there, they 
would not perceive anything like a habitation ; and it was 
very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter upon a very 
remarkable occasion. 

During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game 
every day when the rain admitted me, and made frequent 
discoveries in these walks of something or other to my ad- 
vantage ; particularly I found a kind of wild pigeons, who 
built not as wood pigeons, in a tree, but rather as house 
pigeons, in the holes of the rocks, and taking some young 
ones I endeavored to breed them up tame, and did so; but 
when they grew older they flew all away, which perhaps was 
at first for want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give 
them. However, I frequently found their nests and got 
their young ones, which were very good meat. 

And now, in the managing my household affairs I found 
myself wanting in many things, which I thought at first it 
was impossible for me to make, as, indeed, as to some of 
them it was. For instance, I could never make a cask to be 
hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before, 
but I could never arrive to the capacity of making one by 
them, though I spent many weeks about it. I could neither 
put in the heads or joint the staves so true to one another 
as to make them hold water, so I gave that, also, over. 

In the next place I was at a great loss for candles, so that 
as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven 
o’clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the 
lump of bees-wax with which I made candles in my African 
adventure, but I had none of that now; the only remedy I 
had was that when I had killed a goat I saved the tallow, 
and with a little dish made of clay, which I baked in the 
sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made me a 
lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear, steady 
light, like a candle. In the middle of all my labors it hap- 
pened that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag, 
which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the 
feeding of poultry, not for this voyage but before, as I sup- 
pose, when the ship came from Lisbon. What little re- 
mainder of corn had been in the bag was all devoured with 


72 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust, and 
being willing to have the bag for some other use, (I think it 
was to put powder in when I divided it for fear of the light- 
ning, or some such use,) I shook the husks of corn out of it 
on one side of my fortification, under the rock. 

It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned 
that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice of anything, 
and not so much as remembering that I had thrown any- 
thing there, when, about a month after, or thereabout, I saw 
some few stalks of something green shooting out of the 
ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had not 
seen; but I was surprised and perfectly astonished when, 
after a little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears 
come out, which were perfect green barley, of the same kind 
as our European, nay, as our English barley. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment and confu- 
sion of my thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted 
upon no religious foundation at all; indeed, I had very few 
notions of religion in my head, or had entertained any sense 
of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as a chance, 
or, as we lightly say, what pleases God, without so much as 
enquiring into the end of Providence in these things, or his 
order in governing events in the world. But after I saw 
barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper 
for corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there, 
it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest that God 
had miraculously caused this grain to grow without any help 
of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sus- 
tenance on that wild, miserable place. 

This touched my heart a little and brought tears out of my 
eyes, and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of 
nature should happen upon my account; and this was the 
more strange to me because I saw near it still all along by 
the side of the rock some other straggling stalks, which 
proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had 
seen it grow in Africa when I was ashore there. 

I not only thought these the pure productions of Provi- 
dence for my support, but not doubting but that there was 
more in the place, I went all over that part of the island, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


73 


where I had been before, peering in every corner, and under 
every rock, to see for more of it, but I could not find any; 
at last it occurred to my thoughts, that I had shook a bag of 
chicken’s meat out in that place, and then the wonder began 
to cease ; and I must confess, my religious thankfulness to 
God’s providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering 
that all this was nothing but what was common ; though I 
ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unfore- 
seen Providence, as if it had been miraculous; for it was 
really the work of Providence as to me, that should order or 
appoint, that ten or twelve grains of corn should remain un- 
spoiled (when the rats had destroyed all the rest), as if it 
had been dropped from Heaven ; as also that I should throw 
it out in that particular place, where it being in the shade of 
a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had 
thrown it anywhere else at that time, it had been burnt up 
and destroyed. 

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, 
in their season, which was about the end of June; and lay- 
ing up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping 
in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with 
bread. But it was not till the fourth year, that I could allow 
myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then but 
sparingly, as I shall say afterwards in its order ; for I lost 
all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper 
time ; for I sowed it just before the dry season, so that it 
never came up at all, at least, not as it would have done. 
Of which in its place. 

Besides this barley, there was, as above, twenty or thirty 
stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and 
whose use was of the same kind or to the same purpose, 
viz : to make me bread, or rather food ; for I found ways to 
cook it up without baking, though I did that also after some 
time. But to return to my journal. 

I worked excessive hard these three or four months to 
get my wall done, and the 14th of April I closed it up, con- 
triving to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall by a 
ladder, that there might be no sign in the outside of my 
habitation. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


74 

April 1 6. I finished the ladder, so I went up with the lad- 
der to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down 
on the inside. This was a complete enclosure to me ; for 
within I had room enough, and nothing could come at me 
from without, unless it could first mount my wall. 

The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost 
had all my labor overthrown at once, and myself killed; 
the case was thus : As I was busy in the inside of it, behind 
my tent, just in the entrance into my cave, I was terribly 
frighted with a most dreadful, surprising thing indeed; for 
all on a sudden I found the earth come crumbling down from 
the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my 
head, and two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked 
in a frightful manner. I was heartily scared, but thought 
nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking that the 
top of my cave was falling in, as some of it had done before, 
and for fear I should be buried in it, I ran forward to my 
ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over 
my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected 
might roll down upon me. I was no sooner stepped down 
upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it was a terrible 
earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three times at 
about eight minutes distance, with three such shocks as 
would have overturned the strongest building that could be 
supposed to have stood on the earth ; and a great piece of 
the top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me 
next the sea, fell down with such a terrible noise as I never 
heard in all my life. I perceived also, the very sea was put 
into violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks were 
stronger under the water than on the island. 

I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never felt 
the like, or discoursed with any one that had, that I was like 
one dead or stupefied ; and the motion of the earth made 
my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at sea ; but the 
noise of the falling of the rock awakened me, as it were, and 
rousing me from the stupefied condition I was in, filled me 
with horror, and I thought of nothing then but the hill fall- 
ing upon my tent and all my household goods, and burying 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 75 

all at once ; and this sunk my very soul within me a second 
time. 

After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for 
some time, I began to take courage, and yet I had not heart 
enough to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried 
alive, but sat still upon the ground, greatly cast down and 
disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All this while I had 
not the least serious religious thoughts, nothing but the 
common “ Lord have mercy upon me ; ” and when it was 
over that went away too. 

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow 
cloudy, as if it would rain ; soon after that the wind rose 
by little and little, so that in less than half an hour it blew a 
most dreadful hurricane. The sea was all on a sudden 
covered over with foam and froth, the shore was covered 
with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the 
roots, and a terrible storm it was ; and this held about three 
hours, and then began to abate, and in two hours more it 
was stark calm, and began to rain very hard. 

All this while I sat upon the ground very much terrified 
and dejected, when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, 
that these winds and rain being the consequences of the 
earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and I 
might venture into my cave again. With this thought my 
spirits began to revive, and the rain also helping to per- 
suade me, I went in and sat down in my tent, but the rain 
was so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down 
with it, and I was forced to go into my cave, though very 
much afraid and uneasy for fear it should fall on my head. 

This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz: To cut a 
hole through my new fortification like a sink to let the water 
go out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I 
had been in my cave some time, and found still no more 
shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be more com- 
posed ; and now to support my spirits, which indeed wanted 
it very much, I went to my little store and took a small sup 
of rum, which, however, I did then and always very spar- 
ingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone. 

It continued raining all that night, and a great part of the 


76 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

next day, so that I could not stir abroad, but my mind being 
more composed, I began to think of what I had best do, 
concluding that if the island was subject to these earth- 
quakes, there would be no living for me in a cave ; but I 
must consider of building me some little hut in an open 
place which I might surround with a wall as I had done 
here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men ; 
but concluded, if I staid where I was, I should certainly, one 
time or another, be buried alive. 

With these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent from 
the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging 
precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, 
would certainly fall upon my tent. And I spent the two 
next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving 
where and how to remove my habitation. 

The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me that I 
never slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying 
abroad without any fence was almost equal to it ; but still 
when I looked about and saw how everything was put in 
order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe from 
danger, it made me very loth to remove. 

In the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a 
vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be con- 
tented to run the venture where I was, till I had formed a 
camp for myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it. 
So with this resolution I composed myself for a time, and 
resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me 
a wall with piles and cables, etc., in a circle as before, and 
set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that I would 
venture to stay where I was till it was finished and fit to 
remove to. This was the 21st. 

April 22. The next morning I began to consider of means 
to put this resolve in execution, but I was at a great loss 
about my tools; I had three large axes and abundance of 
hatchets, (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the 
Indians), but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard 
wood, they were all full of notches and dull, and though I 
had a grind-stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too; 
this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


77 

bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the 
life and death of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with 
a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might have both my 
hands a tliberty. N ote. — I had never seen any such thing in 
England, or at least not to take notice how it was done, 
though since I have observed it is very common there ; be- 
sides that, my grind-stone was very large and heavy. This 
machine cost me a full week’s work to bring it to perfection. 

April 2 8, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding 
my tools, my machine for turning my grind-stone performing 
very well. 

April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a 
great while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced my- 
self to one biscuit-cake a day, which made my heart very 
heavy. 

May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the 
tide being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than 
ordinary, and it looked like a cask ; when I came to it, I 
found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of 
the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; 
and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to 
lie higher out of the water, than it used to do ; I examined 
the barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found.it was 
a barrel of gunpowdef, but it had taken water, and the 
powder was caked as hard as a stone ; however, I rolled it 
farther on shore for the present, and went on upon the 
sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship to look for 
more. 

When I came down to the ship I found it strangely re- 
moved ; the fore-castle, which lay before buried in sand, was 
heaved up at least six foot ; and the stern, which was broke 
to pieces and parted from the rest by the force of the sea 
soon after I had left rummaging her, was tossed, as it were, 
up, and cast on one side, and the sand was thrown so high 
on that side next her stern, that, whereas, there was a great 
place of water before, so that I could not come within a 
quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming, I could 
now walk quite up to her when the tide was out; I was 
surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 



done by the earthquake. And as by this violence the ship 
was more broken open than formerly, so many things came 

f daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and which the 

winds and water rolled by degrees to the land. 

This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of re- 
moving my habitation; and I busied myself mightily that 
day especially, in searching whether I could make any way 
into the ship; but I found nothing was to be expected of 
that kind, for that all the inside of the ship was choked up 
with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of any- 
thing, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of 
the ship, concluding, that everything I could get from her 
would be of some use or other to me. 

May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam 
through, which I thought held some of the upper part or 
quarter-deck together, and when I had cut it through, I 
cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which 
lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to give 
over for that time. 

May 4. I went a fishing, but caught not one fish that I 
durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport ; when just going to 
leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long 
line of some rope yarn, but I had no hooks, yet I frequently 
caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat ; all which I 

I dried in the sun, and eat them dry. 

May 5. Worked on the wreck, cut another beam asunder, 
and brought three great fir planks off from the decks, which 
I tied together, and made swim on shore, when the tide of 
flood came on. 

May 6. Worked on the wreck, got several iron bolts out 
of her, and other pieces of iron work ; worked very hard, and 
came home very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it 
over. 

May 7. Went to the wreck again, but with an intent not 
to work, but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself 
down, the beams being cut, that several pieces of the ship 
seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the hold lay so open, 
that I could see into it, but almost full of water and sand. 
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to 



ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


79 

wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water 
or sand ; I wrenched open two planks, and brought them on 
shore also with the tide; I left the iron crow in the wreck 
for next day. 

May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way 
into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and 
loosened them with the crow, but could not break them up; 
I felt also the roll of English lead, and could stir it, but it 
was too heavy to remove. 

May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Went every day to the wreck, 
and got a great deal of pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, 
and two or three hundred weight of iron. 

May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a 
piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, 
and driving it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and 
a half i n the water, I could not make any blow to drive the 
hatchet. 

May 16. It had blowed hard in the night, and the wreck 
appeared more broken by the force of the water ; but I 
stayed so long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that 
the tide prevented me going to the wreck that day. 

May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, 
at a great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to 
see what they were, and found it was a piece of the head, 
but too heavy for me to bring away. 

May 24. Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, 
and with hard labor I loosened some things so much with 
the crow, that the first blowing tide several casks floated 
out, and two of the seamen’s chests ; but the wind blowing 
from the shore, nothing came to land that day, but pieces of 
timber, and a hogshead which had some Brazil pork in it, 
but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it. 

I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, 
except the time necessary to get food, which I always ap- 
pointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the 
tide was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out, 
and by this time I had gotten timber, and plank, and iron 
work enough, to have builded a good boat, if I had known 


8o 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


how; and also, I got at several times, and in several pieces, 
near one hundred weight of the sheet lead. 

June 16. Going down to the seaside, I found a large tor- 
toise or turtle; this was the first I had seen, which it seems 
was only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or 
scarcity ; for had I happened to be on the other side of the 
island, I might have had hundreds of them every day, as I 
found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for 
them. 

June 17. I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her 
three score eggs, and her flesh was to me, at that time, the 
most savory and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, hav- 
ing had no flesh but of goats and fowls since I landed in 
this horrid place. 

June 18. Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought 
at this time the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly, 
which I knew was not usual in that latitude. 

June 19. Very ill and shivering, as if the weather had 
been cold. 

June 20. No rest all night; violent pains in my head and 
feverish. 

June 21. Very ill; frighted almost to death with the 
apprehensions of my sad condition, — to be sick and no 
help. Prayed to God for the first time since the storm off 
of Hull, but scarce knew what I said, or why, my thoughts 
being all confused. 

June 22. A little better, but under dreadful apprehen- 
sions of sickness. 

June 23. Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a 
violent headache. 

June 24. Much better. 

June 25. An ague very violent. The fit held me seven 
hours, cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it. 

June 26. Better; and having no victuals to eat took my 
gun, but found myself very weak. However, I killed a she- 
goat, and with much difficulty got it home and broiled some 
of it and eat. I would fain have stewed it and made some 
broth, but had no pot. 

June 27. The ague again so violent that I lay abed all 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


81 


day, and neither eat or drank. I was ready to perish for 
thirst, but so weak I had not strength to stand up, or to get 
myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again, but was 
light-headed, and when I was not I was so ignorant that I 
knew not what to say, only I lay and cried, “ Lord, look upon 
me ! Lord, pity me ! Lord, have mercy upon me ! ” I suppose 
I did nothing else for two or three hours, till, the fit wearing 
off, I fell asleep and did not wake till far in the night. 
When I waked I found myself much refreshed but weak 
and exceeding thirsty. However, as I had no water in my 
whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning, and went 
to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible 
dream. 

I thought that I was sitting on the ground on the outside 
of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after the earth- 
quake, and that I saw a man descend from a great black 
cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground. 
He was all over as bright as a flame, so that I could but just 
bear to look towards him. His countenance was most in- 
expressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe. 
When he stepped upon the ground with his feet I thought 
the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earth- 
quake, and all the air looked, to my apprehension, as if it 
had been filled with flashes of fire. 

He was no sooner landed upon the earth but he moved 
towards me, with a long spear, or weapon, in his hand, to kill 
me, and when he came to a rising ground, at some distance, 
he spoke to me, or I heard a voice so terrible that it is im- 
possible to express the terror of it. All that I can say I 
understood was this: “Seeing all these things have not 
brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die.” At which 
words I thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand 
to kill me. 

No one that shall ever read this account will expect that 
I should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this 
terrible vision; I mean, that even while it was a dream, I even 
dreamed of those horrors. Nor is it any more possible to 
describe the impression that remained upon my mind when 
I awaked and found it was but a dream. 


82 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I had, alas ! no divine knowledge. What I had received 
by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by 
an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wicked- 
ness, and a constant conversation with nothing but such as 
were like myself, — wicked and profane to the last degree. 
I do not remember that I had in all that time one thought 
that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards 
God, or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways. 
But a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good or 
conscience of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me, and I was 
all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature 
among our common sailors can be supposed to be, not hav- 
ing the least sense either of the fear of God in danger, or of 
thankfulness to God in deliverances. 

In the relating what is already past of my story, this will 
be the more easily believed, when I shall add, that through 
all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I 
never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of 
God, or that it was a just punishment for my sin ; my 
rebelious behavior against my father, or my present sins 
which were great; or so much as a punishment for the 
general course of my wicked life. When I was on the 
desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never 
had so much as one thought of what would become of me; 
or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to 
keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, 
as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages. But I 
was merely thoughtless of a God, or a Providence ; acted 
like a mere brute from the principles of nature, and by the 
dictates of common sense only, and indeed hardly that. 

When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal 
captain, well used, and dealt justly and honorably with, as 
well as charitably, I had not the least thankfulness on my 
thoughts. When again I was shipwrecked, ruined, and in 
danger of drowning on this island, I was as far from re- 
morse, or looking on it as a judgment; I only said to my- 
self often, that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be 
always miserable. 

It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


83 

my ship’s crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised 
with a kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, 
had the grace of God assisted, might have come up to true 
thankfulness ; but it ended where it begun, in a mere com- 
mon flight of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I was alive, 
without the least reflection upon the distinguishing goodness 
of the hand which had preserved me, and had singled me 
out to be preserved, when all the rest were destroyed ; or an 
enquiry why Providence had been thus merciful to me; even 
just the same common sort of joy which seamen generally 
have after they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck, which 
they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost 
as soon as it is over, and all the rest of my life was like it. 

Even when I was afterwards, on due consideration, made 
sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this dreadful 
place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of 
relief, or prospect of redemption, as soon as I saw but a 
prospect of living, and that I should not starve and perish 
for hunger, all the sense of my affliction wore off, and I 
begun to be very easy, applied myself to the works proper 
for my preservation and supply, and was far enough from 
being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from Heaven, 
or as the hand of God against me ; these were thoughts 
which very seldom entered into my head. 

The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, 
had at first some little influence upon me, and began to affect 
me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had something 
miraculous in it ; but as soon as ever that part of the thought 
was removed, all the impression which was raised from it, 
wore off also, as I have noted already. 

Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more 
terrible in its nature, or more immediately directing to the 
invisible power which alone directs such things, yet no 
sooner was the first fright over, but the impression it had 
made went off also. I had no more sense of God or his 
judgments, much less of the present affliction of my cir- 
cumstances being from his hand, than if I had been in the 
most prosperous condition of life. 

But now when I began to be sick, and a leisurely view of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


34 

the miseries of death came to place itself before me ; when 
my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong dis- 
temper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the 
fever ; conscience, that had slept so long, begun to awake, 
and I began to reproach myself with my past life, in which 
I had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked the 
justice of God to lay me under uncommon strokes, and to 
deal with me in so vindictive a manner. 

These reflections oppressed me for the second or third 
day of my distemper, and in the violence, as well of the 
fever, as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, ex- 
torted some words from me like praying to God, though I 
cannot say they were either a prayer attended with desires 
or with hopes. It was rather the voice of mere fright and 
distress ; my thoughts were confused, the convictions great 
upon my mind, and the horror of dying in such a miserable 
condition raised vapors into my head with the mere appre- 
hensions ; and in these hurries of my soul, I know not what 
my tongue might express ; but it was rather exclamation, 
such as, “ Lord ! what a miserable creature am I ! If I 
should be sick, I shall certainly die for want of help, and 
what will become of me ? ” Then the tears burst out of my 
eyes, and I could say no more for a good while. 

In this interval the good advice of my father came to my 
mind ; and presently his prediction, which I mentioned at 
the beginning of this story, viz: That if I did take this 
foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would have 
leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his coun- 
sel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. 
Now, said I aloud, my dear father’s words are come to pass. 
God’s justice has overtaken me, and I have none to help or 
hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which had 
mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein I 
might have been happy and easy ; but I would neither see it 
myself, or learn to know the blessing of it from my parents. 

I left them to mourn over my folly, and now I am left to 
mourn under the consequences of it. I refused their help 
and assistance who would have lifted me into the world, * 
and would have made everything easy to me, and now I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


85 

have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature 
itself to support, and no assistance, no help, no comfort, no 
advice. Then I cried out, “ Lord, be my help, for I am in 
great distress.” 

This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that I had 
made for many years. But I return to my journal. 

June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep 
I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up ; and 
though the fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet 
I considered that the fit of the ague would return again the 
next day, and now was my time to get something to refresh 
and support myself when I should be ill ; and the first thing I 
did, I filled a large square case bottle with water, and set it 
upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill 
or aguish disposition of the water, I put about a quarter of a 
pint of rum into it, and mixed them together ; then I got me 
a piece of goat’s flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could 
eat very little. I walked about, but was very weak, and 
withal very sad and heavy hearted in the sense of my miser- 
able condition, dreading the return of my distemper the 
next day. At night I made my supper of three of the 
turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and eat, as we 
call it, in the shell ; and this was the first bit of meat I had 
ever asked God’s blessing to, even as I could remember, in 
my whole life. 

After I had eaten, I tried to walk, but found myself so 
weak that I could hardly carry the gun, (for I never went 
out without that), so I went but a little way, and sat down 
upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just 
before me, and very calm and smooth. As I sat here, some 
such thoughts as these occurred to me. 

What is this earth and sea of which I have seen so much, 
whence is it produced, and what am I, and all the other 
creatures, wild and tame, humane and brutal, whence are 
we? 

Sure, we are all made by some secret Power, who 
formed the earth and sea, the air and sky. And who is 
that? 

Then it followed most naturally: It is God that has made 


86 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


it all. Well, but then it came on strangely, if God has 
made all these things He guides and governs them all, and 
all things that concern them, for the power that could make 
all things must certainly have power to guide and direct 
them. 

If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works 
either without His knowledge or appointment. 

And if nothing happens without His knowledge, He knows 
that I am here and am in this dreadful condition; and if 
nothing happens without His appointment, he has appointed 
all this to befal me. 

Nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of 
these conclusions, and therefore it rested upon me with the 
greater force that it must needs be that God had appointed 
all this to befal me, that I was brought to this miserable 
circumstance by His direction, He having the sole power 
not of me only, but of everything that happened in the 
world. Immediately it followed: 

Why has God done this to me ? What have I done to 
be thus used? 

My conscience presently checked me in that enquiry, as if 
I had blasphemed, and methought it spoke to me like a 
voice: “Wretch! dost thou ask what thou hast done? Look 
back upon a dreadful, mis-spent life, and ask thyself what 
thou hast not done. Ask, ‘Why is it that thou wert not long 
ago destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth 
Roads ? Killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the 
Sallee man-of-war? Devoured by the wild beasts on the 
coast of Africa? Or drowned here when all the crew per- 
ished but thyself?’ Dost thou ask, ‘What have I done?”’ 

I was struck dumb by these reflections, as one astonished, 
and had not a word to say, no, not to answer to myself, but 
rose up pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and 
went up over my wall, as if I had been going to bed ; but 
my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination 
to sleep, so I sat down in my chair and lighted my lamp, for 
it began to be dark. Now, as the apprehension of the return 
of my distemper terrified me very much, it occurred to my 
thought that the Brazilians take no physic but their tobacco 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


87 

for almost all distempers, and I had a piece of a roll of 
tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured, and 
some also that was green and not quite cured. 

I went, directed by Heaven, no doubt, for in this chest I 
found a cure both for soul and body. I opened the chest 
and found what I looked for, viz : the tobacco ; and as the 
few books I had saved lay there too, I took out one of the 
Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to this time I 
had not found leisure, or so much as inclination to look into. 
I say I took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco 
with me to the table. 

What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to my 
distemper, or whether it was good for it or no; but I tried 
several experiments with it, as if I was resolved it should 
hit one way or other. I first took a piece of a leaf and 
chewed it in my mouth, which, indeed, at first almost stupe- 
fied my brain, the tobacco being green and strong, and that 
I had not been much used to it. Then I took some and 
steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved to take 
a dose of it when I lay down. And, lastly, I burnt some 
upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the smoke 
cf it as long as I could bear it, as well for the heat as almost 
for suffocation. 

In the interval of this operation I took up the Bible and 
began to read, but my head was too much disturbed with 
the tobacco to bear reading, at least that time. Only having 
opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to 
me were these : “ Call on me in the day of trouble and I will 
deliver, and thou shalt glorify me.” 

The words were very apt to my case, and made some im- 
pression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, 
though not so much as they did afterwards ; for as for being 
delivered, the Word had no sound, as I may say, to me. 
The thing was so remote, so impossible in my apprehension 
of things, that I began to say as the children of Israel did, 
when they were premised flesh to eat, “ Can God spread a 
table in the wilderness ? ” So I began to say, Can God him- 
self deliver me from this place ? and as it was not for many 
years that any hope appeared, this prevailed very often upon 


88 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


my thoughts. But however, the words made a great im- 
pression upon me, and I mused upon them very often. It 
grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my 
head so much, that I inclined to sleep ; so I left my lamp 
burning in the cave, lest I should want anything in the 
night, and went to bed ; but before I lay down, I did what I 
never had done in all my life : I kneeled down and prayed to 
God to fulfill the promise to me, that if I called upon him 
in the day of trouble, he would deliver me. After my broken 
and imperfect prayer was over, I drank the rum in which I 
had steeped the tobacco, which was so strong and rank of 
the tobacco, that indeed I could scarce get it down ; imme- 
diately upon this I went to bed ; I found presently it flew up 
in my head violently, but I fell into a sound sleep, and 
waked no more, until by the sun it must necessarily be near 
three o’clock in the afternoon the next day; nay, to this 
hour, I’m partly of the opinion, that I slept all the next day 
and night, and till almost three the day after ; for otherwise 
I knew not how I should lose a day out of my reckoning in 
the days of the week, as it appeared some years after I had 
done. For if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing the 
line, I should have lost more than one day. But certainly I 
lost a day in my account, and never knew which way. 

Be that however one way or the other, when I awaked I 
found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively 
and cheerful ; when I got up, I was stronger than I was the 
day before, and my stomach better, for I was hungry ; and 
in short, I had no fit the next day, but continued much 
altered for the better ; this was the 29th. 

The 30th was my well day of course, and I went abroad 
with my gun, but did not care to travel too far. I killed a 
sea-fowl or two, something like a brandt-goose, and brought 
them home, but was not very forward to eat them ; so I eat 
some more of the turtle’s eggs, which were very good. This 
evening I renewed the medicine which I had supposed did 
me good the day before, viz : the tobacco steeped in rum, 
only I did not take so much as before, nor did I chew any of 
the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke ; however, I was 
not so well the next day, which was the first of July, as I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 89 

hoped I should have been ; for I had a little spice of the 
cold fit, but it was not much. 

July 2. I renewed the medicine all the three ways, and 
dosed myself with it as at first, and doubled the quantity 
which I drank. 

3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not re- 
cover my full strength for some weeks after. While I was 
thus gathering strength, my thoughts run exceedingly upon 
this Scripture, “I will deliver thee ; ” and the impossibility 
of my deliverance lay much upon my mind in bar of my ever 
expecting it. But as I was discouraging myself with such 
thoughts, it occurred to my mind, that I pored so much 
upon my deliverance from the main affliction, that I disre- 
garded the deliverance I had received; and I was, as it 
were, made to ask myself such questions as these, viz : Have 
I not been delivered, and wonderfully too, from sickness ? 
from the most distressed condition that could be, and that 
was so frightful to me, and what notice had I taken of it? 
Had I done my part, God had delivered me, but I had not 
glorified him; that is to say, I had not owned and been 
thankful for that as a deliverance, and how could I expect 
greater deliverance ? 

This touched my heart very much, and immediately I 
kneeled down, and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery 
from my sickness. 

July 4. In the morning I took the Bible, and beginning 
at the new testament, I began seriously to read it, and 
imposed upon myself to read awhile every morning and 
every night, not tying myself to the number of chapters, but 
as long as my thoughts should engage me. It was not long 
after I set seriously to this work, but I found my heart more 
deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my 
past life. The impression of my dream revived, and the 
words, “all these things have not brought thee to repentance,” 
ran seriously in my thought. I was earnestly begging of 
God to give me repentance, when it happened providentially 
the very day that reading the Scripture, I came to these 
words, “he is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repent- 
ance, and to give remission.” I threw down the book, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


90 

with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a 
kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, Jesus, thou son 
of David, Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour, give me 
repentance ! 

This was the first time that I could say, in the true sense 
of the words, that I prayed in all my life ; for now I prayed 
with a sense of my condition, and with a true scripture view 
of hope founded on the encouragement of the word of God ; 
and from this time, I may say, I began to have hope that 
God would hear me. 

Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, “call 
on me, and I will deliver you,” in a different sense from what 
I had ever done before; for then I had no notion of any- 
thing being called deliverance, but my being delivered from 
the captivity I was in; for though I was indeed at large in 
the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and 
that in the worst sense in the world; but now I learned to 
take it in another sense. Now I looked back upon my past 
life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that 
my soul sought nothing of God, but deliverance from the 
load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. As for my 
solitary life it was nothing; I did not so much as pray to be 
delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no considera- 
tion in comparison to this. And I add this part here, to 
hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a 
true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a 
much greater blessing, than deliverance from affliction. 

But leaving this part, I return to my journal. 

My condition began now to be, though not less miserable 
as to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind; and my 
thoughts being directed, by a constant reading the Scripture, 
and praying to God, to things of a higher nature ; I had a 
great deal of comfort within, which till now I knew nothing 
of ; also, as my health and strength returned, I bestirred my- 
self to furnish myself with everything that I wanted, and 
make my way of living as regular as I could. 

From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly employed 
in walking about with my gun in my hand, a little and a 
little at a time, as a man that was gathering up his strength 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


9 1 

after a fit of sickness. For it is hardly to be imagined, how 
low I was, and to what weakness I was reduced. The 
application which I made use of was perfectly new, and 
perhaps what had never cured an ague before, neither can I 
recommend it to any one to practice, by this experiment; 
and though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather contrib- 
uted to weakening me ; for I had frequent convulsions in 
my nerves and limbs for some time. 

I learnt from it also this in particular, that being abroad 
in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my 
health that could be, especially in those rains, which came 
attended with' storms and hurricanes of wind ; for as the 
rain which came in the dry season was always most ac- 
companied with such storms, so I found that rain was much 
more dangerous than the rain which fell in September and 
October. 

I had been now in this unhappy island above ten months, 
all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to 
be entirely taken from me ; and I firmly believed, that no 
human shape had ever set foot upon that place. Having 
now secured my habitation, as I thought, fully to my mind, 
I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the 
island, and to see what other productions I might find, 
which I yet knew nothing of. 

It was the 15th of July that I began to take a more par- 
ticular survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first, 
where, as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore ; I found 
after I came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow 
any higher, and that it was no more than a little brook of 
running water, and very fresh and good ; but this being the 
dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it, 
at least, not enough to run in any stream, so as it could be 
perceived. 

On the bank of this brook I found many pleasant savanas, 
or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass ; and on 
the rising parts of them next to the higher grounds, where 
the water, as it might be supposed, never overflowed, I found 
a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a great and 
very strong stalk ; there were divers other plants which I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


92 

had no notion of, or understanding about, and might perhaps 
have virtues of their own, which I could not find out. 

I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians in all 
that climate make their bread of, but I could find none. I 
saw large plants of aloes, but did not then understand them. 
I saw several sugar canes, but wild, and for want of cultiva- 
tion, imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries 
for this time, and came back musing with myself what 
course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any 
of the fruits or plants which I should discover; but could 
bring it to no conclusion ; for in short, I had made so little 
observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of 
the plants in the field, at least very little that might serve 
me to any purpose now in my distress. 

The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again, 
and after going something farther than I had gone the day 
before, I found the brook, and the savanas began to cease, 
and the country became more woody than before ; in this 
part I found different fruits, and particularly 1 found melons 
upon the ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the 
trees ; the vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the 
clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe 
and rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was 
exceeding glad of them ; but I was warned by my experience 
to eat sparingly of thefn, remembering, that when I was 
ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our 
Englishmen who were slaves there, by throwing them into 
fluxes and fevers. But I found an excellent use for these 
grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and 
keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept, which I 
thought would be, as indeed they were, as wholesome as 
agreeable to eat, when no grapes might be to be had. 

I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my 
habitation, which by the way was the first night, as I might 
say, I had lain from home. In the night I took my first 
contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well, and 
the n$xt morning proceeded upon my discovery, travelling 
near four miles, as I might judge by the length of the valley, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 93 

keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on tne south and 
north side of me. 

At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the 
country seemed to descend to the west, and a little spring 
of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by 
me, run the other way, that is, due east ; and the country 
appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, everything being 
in a constant verdure, or flourish of spring, that it looked 
like a planted garden. 

I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, 
surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed 
with my other afflicting thoughts), to think that this was all 
my own, that I was king and lord of all this country inde- 
feasibly, and had a right of possession ; and if I could convey 
it, I might have it in inheritance, as completely as any lord 
of a manor in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa 
trees, orange, and lemon, and citron trees ; but all wild, and 
very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. However, the 
green limes that I gathered, were not only pleasant to eat, 
but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards 
with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool, 
and refreshing. 

I found now I had business enough to gather and carry 
home ; and I resolved to lay up a store as well of grapes, 
as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, 
which I knew was approaching. 

In order to this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in one 
place, and a lesser heap in another place ; and a great par- 
cel of limes and lemons in another place ; and taking a few 
of each with me, I travelled homeward, and resolved to 
come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make 
to carry the rest home. 

Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I 
came home ; so I must now call my tent and my cave. But 
before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled, the richness of 
the fruits, and the weight of the juice having broken them 
and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing ; as 
to the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few. 

The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made 


94 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


two small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was sur- 
prised, when coming to my heap of grapes, which were so 
rich and fine when I gathered them, I found them all spread 
about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some 
there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this I con- 
cluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts, which 
had done this ; but what they were I knew not. 

However, as I found that there was no laying them up on 
heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one 
way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would 
be crushed with their own weight, I took another course ; 
for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them 
up upon the out branches of the trees, that they might cure 
and dry in the sun ; and as for the limes and lemons, I car- 
ried as many back as I could well stand under. 

When I came home from this journey, I contemplated 
with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the 
pleasantness of the situation, the security from storms on 
that side the water, and the wood, and concluded that I had 
pitched upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the 
worst part of the country. Upon the whole I began to con- 
sider of removing my habitation ; and to look out for a place 
equally safe, as where I now was situate, if possible, in that 
pleasant, fruitful part of the island. 

This thought run long in my head, and I was exceedingly 
fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place 
tempting me ; but when I came to a nearer view of it, and 
to consider that I was now by the seaside, where it was at 
least possible that something might happen to my advan- 
tage, and by the same ill fate that brought me, might bring 
some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and 
though it was scarce probable that any such thing should 
ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and 
woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my 
bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, 
but impossible ; and that therefore I ought not by any 
means to remove. 

However, I was so enamored of this place, that I spent 
much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


95 


month of July; and though upon second thoughts I resolved 
as above, not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a 
bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, 
being a double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked, 
and filled between with brushwood ; and here I lay very se- 
cure, sometimes two or three nights together, always going 
over it with a ladder, as before ; so that I fancied now I had 
my country house, and my sea-coast house ; and this work 
took me up to the beginning of August. 

I had but newly finished my fence and began to enjoy my 
labor, but the rains came on and made me stick close to my 
first habitation; for though I had made me a tent like the 
other, with a piece of a sail, and spread it very well, yet I 
had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a 
cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraor- 
dinary. 

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished 
my bower, and began to enjoy myself. The 3d of August I 
found the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, and, 
indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began 
to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy 
that I did so, for the rains which followed would have 
spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food, 
for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No 
sooner had I taken them all down and carried most of them 
home to my cave but it began to rain, and from hence, which 
was the 14th of August, it rained more or less every day till 
the middle of October, and sometimes so violently that I 
could not stir out of my cave for several days. 

In this season I was much surprised with the increase in 
my family. I had been concerned for the loss of one of my 
cats, who ran away from me, or, as I thought, had been 
dead, and I heard no more tale or tidings of her till, to my 
astonishment, she came home about the end of August with 
three kittens. This was the more strange to me because, 
though I had killed a wildcat, as I called it, with my gun, 
yet I thought it was a quite differing kind from our European 
cats ; yet the young cats were the same kind of house breed 
like the old one, and both my cats being females I thought 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


96 

it very strange. But from these three cats I afterwards came 
to be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them 
like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my'house 
as much as possible. 

From the 14th of August to the 26th incessant rain, so 
that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be 
much wet. In this confinement I began to be straightened 
for food. But, venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat, 
and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large 
tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated 
thus: I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of 
the goat’s flesh or of the turtle for my dinner, broiled (for, 
to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil or stew any 
thing), and two or three of the turtle’s eggs for my supper. 

During this confinement in my cover by the rain I worked 
daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by de- 
grees worked it on towards one side till I came to the out- 
side of the hill, and made a door, or way out, which came 
beyond my fence, or wall, and so I came in and out this 
way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open, for as 
I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure, 
whereas now I thought I lay exposed, and open for anything 
to come in upon me; and yet I could not perceive that there 
was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had 
yet seen upon the island being a goat. 

September 30. I was now come to the unhappy anniver- 
sary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my post and 
found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five 
days. I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to 
religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with 
the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, 
acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and pray- 
ing to him to have mercy on me, through Jesus Christ; 
and having not tasted the least refreshment for twelve 
hours, even till the going down of the sun, I then eat a bis- 
cuit cake and a bunch of grapes and went to bed, finishing 
the day as I began it. 

I had all this time observed no Sabbath-day; for as at 
first I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


97 

some time omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a 
longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath-day, and so did 
not really know what any of the days were ; but now having 
cast up the days, as above, I found I had been there a year; 
so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day 
for a Sabbath, though 1 found at the end of my account I 
had lost a day or two in my reckoning. 

A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I con- 
tented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down 
only the most remarkable events of my life, without continu- 
ing a daily memorandum of other things. 

The rainy season, and the dry season, began now to ap- 
pear regular to me, and I learned to divide them so as to 
provide for them accordingly. But I bought all my experi- 
ence before I had it, and this I am going to relate, was one 
of the most discouraging experiments that I made at all. I 
have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and 
rice, which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I 
thought, cf themselves, and believe there were about thirty 
stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley ; and now I thought 
it a proper time to sow it after the rains, the sun being in its 
southern position, going from me. 

Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could 
with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I 
sowed my grain; but as I was sowing, it casually occurred 
to my thoughts, that I would not sow it all at first, because 
I did not know when was the proper time for it ; so I sowed 
about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of 
each. 

It was a great comfort to me afterwards, that I did so, for 
not one grain of that I sowed this time came to anything; 
for the dry months following, the earth having had no rain 
after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its 
growth, and never came up at all, till the wet season had 
come again, and then it grew as if it had been but newly 
sown. 

Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imag- 
ined was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of 
ground to make another trial in, and I dug up a piece of 

4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


98 

ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed 
in February, a little before the vernal equinox; and this 
having the rainy months of March and April to water it, 
sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop, but 
having part of the seed left only, and not daring to sow all 
that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop 
not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. 

But by this experiment I was made master of my business, 
and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow ; and 
that I might expect two seed-times, and two harvests every 
year. 

While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery 
which was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains 
were over, and the weather began to settle, which was about 
the month of November, 1 made a visit up the country to my 
bower, where, though I had not been some months, yet I 
found all things just as I left them. The circle or double 
hedge that I had made, was not only firm and entire, but the 
stakes which I had cut out of some trees that grew there- 
abouts, were all shot out and grown with long branches, as 
much as a willow tree usually shoots the first year after lop- 
ping its head. I could not tell what tree to call it, that these 
stakes were cut from. I was surprised, and yet very well 
pleased to see the young trees grow, and I pruned them, and 
led them up to grow as much alike as I could, and it is scarce 
credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years ; 
so that though the hedge made a circle of about twenty-five 
yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call 
them, soon covered it; and it was a complete shade, suffi- 
cient to lodge under all the dry season. 

This made me resolve to cut some more stakes and make 
me a hedge like this in a semi-circle round my wall (I mean 
that of my first dwelling), which I did, and placing the trees, 
or stakes, in a double row, at about eight yards’ distance 
from my first fence, they grew presently, and were at first a 
fine cover to my habitation, and afterward served for a 
defence, also, as I shall observe in its order. 

I now found that the seasons of the year might generally 
be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 99 

into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were 
generally thus : 

Half of February, March and April. Rainy, the sun 
being then on or near the equinox. 

Half of April, May, June, July and August. Dry, the sun 
being then to the north of the Line. 

Half of August, September and October. Rainy, the sun 
being then come back. 

Half of October, November, December, January and 
February. Dry, the sun being then to the south of the 
Line. 

The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as 
the winds happened to blow, but this was the general obser- 
vation I made. After I had found by experience the ill 
consequence of being abroad in the rain, I took care to 
furnish myself with provisions beforehand, that I might not 
be obliged to go out, and I sat within doors as much as 
possible during the wet months. 

In this time I found much employment (and very suitable, 
also, to the time), for I found great occasion of many things 
which I had no way to furnish myself with but by hard labor 
and constant application ; particularly I tried many ways to 
make myself a basket, but all the twigs I could get for the 
purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing. It 
proved of excellent advantage to me now that when I was a 
boy I used to take great delight in standing at a basket- 
maker’s in the town where my father lived, to see them 
make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very 
officious to help, and a great observer of the manner how 
they worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I 
had by this means full knowledge of the methods of it, that 
I wanted nothing but the materials, when it came into my 
mind that the twigs of that tree from whence I cut my stakes 
that grew, might possibly be as tough as the sallows, and 
willows, and osiers in England, and I resolved to try. 

Accordingly, the next day I went to my country-house, as 
I called it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found 
them to my purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon 
I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a 


IOO 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


quantity, which I soon found, for there was great plenty of 
them. These I set up to dry within my circle, or hedge, 
and when they were fit for use I carried them to my cave, 
and here, during the next season, I employed myself in 
making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to 
carry earth, or to carry or layup anything as I had occasion. 
And, though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I 
made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose, and thus 
afterwards I took care never to be without them ; and as my 
wicker-ware decayed I made more, especially I made strong 
deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when I 
should come to have any quantity of it. 

Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of 
time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to 
supply two wants : I had no vessels to hold anything that 
was liquid, except two runlets, which were almost full of 
rum, and some glass bottles, some of the common size, and 
others which were case-bottles, — square, for the holding of 
waters, spirits, etc. I had not so much as a pot to boil any- 
thing, except a great kettle which I saved out of the ship, 
and which was too big for such use as I desired it, viz: to 
make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. The second 
thing I would fain have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was 
impossible for me to make one ; however, I found a contri- 
vance for that, too, at last. 

I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes, 
or piles, and in this wicker working all the summer, or dry 
season, when another business took me up more time than 
it could be imagined I could spare. 

I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the 
whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so 
on to where I built my bower, and where I had an opening 
quite to the sea on the other side of the island. I now 
resolved to travel quite cross to the seashore on that side; 
so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger 
quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit 
cakes, and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my 
store, I began my journey. When I had passed the vale 
where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


IOI 


sea to the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly 
descried land, whether an island or a continent I could not 
tell; but it lay very high, extending from the west to the 
W. S. W. at a very great distance. By my guess it could 
not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off. 

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, other- 
wise than that I knew it must be part of America, and as I 
concluded, by all my observations, must be near the Spanish 
dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, 
if I should have landed, I had been in a worse condition 
than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the disposi- 
tions of Providence, which I began now to own, and to 
believe, ordered everything for the best. I say, I quieted my 
mind with this, and left afflicting myself with fruitless wishes 
of being there. 

Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered 
that if this land was the Spanish coast I should certainly, 
one time or other, see some vessel pass or repass one way 
or other; but if not, then it was the savage coast between 
the Spanish country and Brazils, which are, indeed, the 
worst of savages, for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and 
fail not to murder or devour all the human bodies that fall 
into their hands. 

With these considerations I walked very leisurely for- 
ward. I found that side of the island where I now was 
much pleasanter than mine, the open or savana fields sweet, 
adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods. 
I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caught 
one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to 
speak to me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young 
parrot, for I knocked it down with a stick, and having re- 
covered it, I brought it home; but it was some years before 
I could make him speak. However, at last I taught him to 
call me by my name very familiarly ; but the accident that 
followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its 
place. 

I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in 
.the low grounds hares, as I thought them to be, and foxes; 
but they differed greatly from all other kinds I had met 


102 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


with. Nor could I satisfy myself to eat them, though I killed 
several. But I had no need to be venturous, for I had no 
want of food, and of that which was very good, too, espe- 
cially these three sorts, viz: goats, pigeons, and turtle or 
tortoise, which, added to my grapes, Leadenhall Market 
could not have furnished a table better than I, in proportion 
to the company. And though my case was deplorable 
enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness, and that I 
was not driven to any extremities for food, but rather plenty, 
even to dainties. 

I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright 
in a day, or thereabouts ; but I took so many turns and 
returns to see what discoveries I could make, that I came 
weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit down for 
all night ; and then I either reposed myself in a tree, or sur- 
rounded myself with a row of stakes, set upright in the 
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild 
creature could come at me, without waking me. 

As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to 
see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the 
island ; for here indeed the shore was covered with innu- 
merable turtles, whereas on the other side I had found but 
three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinite number 
of fowls, of many kinds, some which I had seen, and some 
which I had not seen of before, and many of them very 
good meat; but such as I knew not the names of, except 
those called penguins. 

I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very spar- 
ing of my powder and shot, and therefore had more mind to 
kill a she-goat, if I could, which I could better feed on ; and 
though there were many goats here, more than on my side 
the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that I could 
come near them, the country being flat and even, and they 
saw me much sooner than when I was on the hill. 

I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter 
than mine, but yet I had not the least inclination to remove; 
for as I was fixed in my habitation, it became natural to me, 
and I seemed all the while I was here, to be as it were upon 
a journey, and from home. However, I travelled along the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


103 


shore of the sea, towards the east, I suppose about twelve 
miles, and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a 
mark, I concluded I would go home again, and that the next 
journey I took should be on the other side of the island, east 
from my dwelling, and so round till I came to my post again. 
Of which in its place. 

I took another way to come back than that I went, think- 
ing I could easily keep all the island so much in my view, 
that I could not miss finding my first dwelling by viewing 
the country; but I found myself mistaken, for being come 
about two or three miles, I found myself descended into a 
very large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those 
hills covered with wood, that I could not see which was my 
way by any direction but that of the sun, nor even then, 
unless I knew very well the position of the sun at that time 
of the day. 

It happened to my farther misfortune, that the weather 
proved hazy for three or four days, while I was in this val- 
ley, and not being able to see the sun, 1 wandered about 
very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find out the 
seaside, look for my post, and come back the same way I 
went ; and then by easy journeys I turned homeward ; the 
weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, 
hatchet, and other things very heavy. 

In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized 
upon it, and I running in to take hold of it, caught it, and 
saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind to bring it 
home if I could, for I had often been musing whether it 
might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a 
breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my pow- 
der and shot should be all spent. 

I made a collar to this little creature, and with a string 
which I made of some rope-yarn, which I always carried 
about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I 
came to my bower, and there I enclosed him, and left him: 
for I was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had 
been absent above a month. 

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me, to come 
into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This 


io4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


little wandering journey, without settled place of abode, had 
been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it 
to myself, was a perfect settlement to me, compared to that ; 
and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I 
resolved I would never go a great way from it again, while it 
should be my lot to stay on the island. 

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself 
after my long journey; during which, most of the time was 
taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my poll, 
who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be mighty 
well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the 
poor kid, which I had penned in within my little circle, and 
resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food ; 
accordingly I went, and found it where I left it ; for indeed 
it could not get out, but almost starved for want of food. I 
went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs 
as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied 
it as I did before, to lead it away ; but it was so tame with 
being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it; for it 
followed me like a dog; and as I continually fed it, the 
creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it 
became from that time one of my domestics also, and would 
never leave me afterwards. 

The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, 
and I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn 
manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on 
the island, having now been there two years, and no more 
prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there. 
I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledg- 
ments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary 
condition was attended with, and without which it might 
have been infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and 
hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me, 
even that it was possible I might be more happy in this 
solitary condition, than I should have been in a liberty of 
society, and in all the pleasures of the world. That he 
could fully make up to me the deficiences of my solitary 
state and the want of human society', by his presence, and 
the communications of his grace to my soul, supporting. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 105 

comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his provi- 
dence here, and hope for his eternal presence hereafter. 

It was now that I began sensibly to feel how* much more 
happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable circum- 
stances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all 
the past part of my days ; and now I changed both my 
sorrows and my joys ; my very desires altered, my affections 
changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new, 
from what they were at my first coming, or indeed for the 
two years past. 

Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for 
viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition, 
would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart 
would die within me, to think of the woods, the mountains, 
the deserts, I was in ; and how I was a prisoner locked up 
with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an unin- 
habited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of 
the greatest composures of mind, this would break out upon 
me like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and weep 
like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middle of 
my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and 
look upon the ground for an hour or two together ; and this 
was still worse to me; for if I could burst out into tears, or 
vent myself by words, it would go off, and the grief having 
exhausted itself, would abate. 

But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts; 
I daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of 
it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, I 
opened the Bible upon these words, “ I will never, never 
leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Immediately it occurred, that 
these words were to me ; why else should they be directed 
in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourning 
over my condition, as one forsaken of God and man ? Well 
then, said I, if God does not forsake me, of what ill conse- 
quence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should 
all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the 
world, and should lose the favor and blessing of God, there 
would be no comparison in the loss. 

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that 


io6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, 
solitary condition, than it was probable I should ever have 
been in any other particular state in the world ; and with 
this thought I was going to give thahks to God for bringing 
me to this place. 

I know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at 
that thought, and I durst not speak the words. How canst 
thou be such a hypocrite (said I, even audibly), to pretend to 
be thankful for a condition, which however thou may’st 
endeavor to be contented with, thou would’st rather pray 
heartily to be delivered from ? so I stopped there. But, 
though I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet 
I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by 
whatever afflicting Providences, to see the former condition 
of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness and repent. I 
never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul within 
me blessed God for directing my friend in England, without 
any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods ; and for 
assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the 
ship. 

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third 
year ; and though I have not given the reader the trouble of 
so particular account of my works this year as the first, yet 
in general it may be observed, that I was very seldom idle ; 
but having regularly divided my time, according to the sev- 
eral daily employments that were before me, such as, first, 
my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I 
constantly set apart some time for thrice every day; sec- 
ondly, the going abroad with my gun for food, which 
generally took me up three hours in every morning, when it 
did not rain ; thirdly, the ordering, curing, preserving, and 
cooking what I had killed or catched for my supply. These 
took up great part of the day ; also it is to be considered 
that the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, 
the violence of the heat was too great to stir out ; so that 
about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be 
supposed to work in ; with this exception, that sometimes 
I changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 107 

work in the morning, and abroad with my gun in the after- 
noon. 

To this short time allowed for labor, I desire may be 
added the exceeding laboriousness of my work ; the many 
hours which for want of tools, want of help, and want of 
skill, everything I did took up out of my time. For exam- 
ple, I was full two and forty days making me a board for a 
long shelf, which I wanted in my cave ; whereas two saw- 
yers with their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of 
them out of the same tree in half a day. 

My case was this : It was to be a large tree, which was to 
be cut down, because my board was to be a broad one. 
This tree I was three days a cutting down, and two more 
cutting of the boughs, and reducing it to a log, or piece of 
timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced 
both the sides of it into chips, till it begun to be light 
enough to move. Then I turned it, and made one side of it 
smooth and flat as a board, from end to end ; then turning 
that side downward, cut the other side, till I brought the 
plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both 
sides. Any one may judge the labor of my hands in such a 
piece of work; but labor and patience carried me through 
that and many other things. I only observe this in particu- 
lar to show the reason why so much of my time went away 
with so little work, viz: That what might be a little to be 
done with help and tools, was a vast labor, and required a 
prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. 

But notwithstanding this, with patience and labor I went 
through many things ; and indeed everything that my cir- 
cumstances made necessary to me to do, as will appear by 
what follows. 

I was now, in the month of November and December, 
expecting my crop of barley and rice. The ground I had 
manured or dug up for them was not great ; for as I ob- 
served, my seed of each was not above the quantity of half 
a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry 
season ; but now my crop promised very well, when on a 
sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again by 
enemies of several sorts, which it was scarce possible to 


io8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


keep from it ; as first, the goats, and wild creatures which I 
called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in 
it night and day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so close, 
that it could get no time to shoot up into stalk. 

This I saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure 
about it with a hedge, which I did with a great deal of toil ; 
and the more, because it required speed. However, as my 
arable land was but small, suited to my crop, I got it totally 
well fenced in about three weeks time. I set my dog to 
guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, 
where he would stand and bark all night long ; so in a little 
time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very 
strong, and well, and began to ripen apace. 

But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in 
the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when 
it was in the ear ; for going along by the place to see how it 
throve, I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls of I 
know not how many sorts, who stood as it were watching 
till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them (for 
I always had my gun with me). I had no sooner shot but 
there rose up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at 
all, from among the corn itself. 

This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few 
days they would devour all my hopes, that I should be 
starved, and never be able to raise a crop at all, and what to 
do I could not tell. However, I resolved not to lose my 
corn, if possible, though I should watch it night and day. 
In the first place, I went among it to see what damage was 
already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it, 
but that as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so 
great but that the remainder was like to be a good crop if it 
could be saved. 

I staid by it to load my gun, and then coming away I could 
easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as 
if they only waited till I was gone away, and the event 
proved it to be so ; for as I walked off as if I was gone, I 
was no sooner out of their sight, but they dropped down one 
by one into the corn again. I was so provoked that I could 
not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


109 

every grain that they eat now, was, as it might be said, a 
peck-loaf to me in the consequence ; but coming up to the 
hedge, I fired again, and killed three of them. This was 
what I wished for ; so I took them up, and served them as 
we serve notorious thieves in England, viz : hanged them 
in chains for a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine 
almost that this should have such an effect as it had; for the 
fowls would not only not come at the corn, but in short they 
forsook all that part of the island, and I could never see a 
bird near the place as long as my scare-crows hung there. 

This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the 
latter end of December, which was our second harvest of the 
year, I reaped my crop. 

I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it down, 
and all I could do was to make one as well as I could out of 
one of the broad swords or cutlasses, which I saved among 
the arms out of the ship. However, as my first crop was 
but small, I had no great difficulty to cut it down ; in short, 
I reaped it my way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and 
carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and so 
rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my 
harvesting, I found that out of my half peck of seed, I had 
near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and half of 
barley, that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at 
that time. 

However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I fore- 
saw that in time it would please God to supply me with 
bread. And yet, here I was perplexed again, for I neither 
knew how to grind or make meal of my corn, or, indeed, 
how to clean it or part it; nor, if made into meal, how to 
make bread of it; and, if how to make it, yet I knew not 
how to bake it. These things being added to my desire of 
having a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant 
supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to pre- 
serve it all for seed against the next season, and in the 
meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to 
accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn 
and bread. 

It might be truly said that now I worked for my bread. 


no 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


’Tis a little wonderful, and what I believe few people have 
thought much upon, viz: the strange multitude of little 
things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dress- 
ing, making and finishing this one article of bread. 

I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this 
to my daily discouragement, and was made more and more 
sensible of it every hour, even after I had got the first hand- 
ful of seed-corn, which, as I have said, came up unexpect- 
edly, and, indeed, to a surprise. 

First, I had no plow to turn up the earth, no spade or 
shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making a 
wooden spade, as I observed before; but this did my work 
in but a wooden manner, and though it cost me a great many 
days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out 
the sooner, but made my work the harder, and made it be 
performed much worse. 

However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out 
with patience, and bear with the badness of the perform- 
ance. When the corn was sowed, I had no harrow, but was 
forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of 
a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than 
rake or harrow it. 

•When it was growing and grown, I have observed already 
how many things I wanted, to fence it, secure it, mow or 
reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, 
and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to 
dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an oven 
to bake it; and yet, all these things I did without, as shall 
be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort 
and advantage to me, too. All this, as I said, made every- 
thing laborious and tedious to me; but that there was no 
help for. Neither was my time so much loss to me, because, 
as I had divided it, a certain part of it was every day 
appointed to these works; and as I resolved to use none of 
the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by me, I had 
the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labor and 
invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the 
performing all the operations necessary for the making the 
corn (when I had it) fit for my use 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ill 


But first, I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed 
enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this 
I had a week’s work, at least, to make me a spade, which, 
when it was done was but a sorry one indeed, and very 
heavy, and required double labor to work with it. However, 
I went through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat 
pieces of ground, as near my house as I could find them to 
my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, the stakes 
of which were all cut of that wood which I had set before, 
and knew it would grow, so that in one year’s time I knew I 
should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but 
little repair. This work was not so little as to take me up 
less than three months, because great part of that time was 
of the wet season, when I could not go abroad. 

Within doors, that is, when it rained and I could not go 
out, I found employment on the following occasions, always 
observing, that all the while I was at work I diverted myself 
with talking to my parrot and teaching him to speak, and I 
quickly learned him to know his own name, and at last to 
speak it out pretty loud, — “ Poll!” which was the first word 
I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my 
own. This, therefore, was not my work, but an assistant to 
my work, for now, as I said, I had a great employment upon 
my hands, as follows, viz: I had long studied, by some 
means or other, to make myself some earthen vessels, 
which, indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew not where to come 
at them. However, considering the heat of the climate, I 
did not doubt but if I could find out any such clay, I might 
botch up some such pot as might, being dried in the sun, be 
hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to 
hold anything that was dry, and required to be kept so; and 
as this was necessary in the preparing corn, meal, etc., which 
was the thing I was upon, I resolved to make some as large 
as I could, and fit only to stand, like jars, to hold what 
should be put into them. 

It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, 
to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste, 
what odd, misshapen, ugly things I made, how many of them 
fell in, and how many fell out, the clay not being stiff enough 


1 1 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to bear its own weight ; how many cracked by the over vio- 
lent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how 
many fell in pieces with only removing, as well before as 
after they were dried ; and, in a word, how after having 
labored hard to find the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring 
it home and work it, I could not make above two large, 
earthen, ugly things — I cannot call them jars — in about two 
months’ labor. 

However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, 
I lifted them very gently up, and set them down again in two 
great wicker baskets which I had made on purpose for them, 
that they might not break ; and, as between the pot and the 
basket there was a little room to spare, I stuffed it full of 
the rice and barley straw, and these two pots being to stand 
always dry, I thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps 
the meal, when the corn was bruised. 

Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, 
yet I made several smaller things with better success ; such 
as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers and pipkins, and 
any things my hand turned to, and the heat of thei sun baked 
them strangely hard. 

But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an 
earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which 
none of these could do. It happened after some time, mak- 
ing a pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when I went to 
put it out after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of 
one of my earthen-ware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as 
a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see 
it, and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to 
burn whole, if they would burn broken. 

This set me to studying how to order my fire, so as to 
make it burn me some pots. I had no notion of a kiln, such 
as the potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though 
I had some lead to do it with ; but I placed three large pip- 
kins, and two or three pots in a pile one upon another, and 
placed my fire-wood all round it w r ith a great heap of embers 
under them; I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the out- 
side, and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red- 
hot quite through, and observed that they did not crack at 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


^3 

all. When I saw them clear red, I let them stand in that 
heat about five or six hours, till I found one of them, though 
it did not crack, did melt or run, for the sand which was 
mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and 
would have run into glass if I had gone on ; so I slacked my 
fire gradually, till the pots began to abate of the red color, 
and watching them all night, that I might not let the fire 
abate too fast, in the morning I had three very good, I will 
not say handsome, pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as 
hard burnt as could be desired, and one of them perfectly 
glazed with the running of the sand. 

After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no 
sort of earthen-ware for my use ; but I must needs say, as 
to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one 
may suppose, when I had no way of making them ; but as 
the children make dirt-pies, or as a woman would make pies 
that never learned to raise paste. 

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to 
mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot that would 
bear the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay till they 
were cold, before I set one upon the fire again, with some 
water in it, to boil me some meat, which it did admirably 
well ; and with a piece of a kid I made some very good 
broth, though I wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredi- 
ents requisite to make it so good as I would have had it been. 

My next concern was, to get me a stone mortar to stamp 
or beat some corn in ; for as to the mill, there was no thought 
at arriving to that perfection of art, with one pair of hands. 
To supply this want I was at a great loss ; for of all trades 
in the world I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, 
as for any whatever ; neither had I any tools to go about it 
with. I spent many a day to find out a great stone big 
enough to cut hollow,' and make fit for a mortar, and could 
find none at all; except what was in the solid rock, and 
which I had no way to dig or cut out ; nor indeed were the 
rocks in the island of hardness sufficient, but were all of a 
sandy, crumbling stone, which neither would bear the weight 
of a heavy pestle, or would break the corn without filling it 
with sand ; so after a great deal of time lost in searching for 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


114 

a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out for a great 
block of hard wood, which I found indeed much easier; and 
getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded it, and 
formed it in the outside with my axe and hatchet, and then 
with the help of fire, and infinite labor, made a hollow place 
in it, as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes. After this, 
I made a great heavy pestle or beater, of the wood called the 
iron-wood, and this I prepared and laid by against I had my 
next crop of corn, when I proposed to myself to grind, or 
rather pound, my corn into meal to make my bread. 

My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or search, to dress 
my meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk, without 
which I did not see it possible I could have any bread. This 
was a most difficult thing, so much as but to think on; for 
to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it; 
I mean fine, thin canvas, or stuff to search the meal through. 
And here I was at a full stop for many months ; nor did I 
really know what to do ; linen I had none left, but what was 
mere rags ; I had goats’ hair, but neither knew I how to 
weave it, or spin it; and had I known how, here was no 
tools to work it with ; all the remedy that I found for this, 
was, that at last I did remember I had among the seamen’s 
clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neckclothes 
of calico or muslin ; and with some pieces of these I made 
three small sieves, but proper enough for the work ; and 
thus I made shift for some years ; how I did afterwards, I 
shall show in its place. 

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and 
how I should make bread when I came to have corn ; for 
first I had no yeast ; as to that part, as there was no supply- 
ing the want, so I did not concern myself much about it. 
But for an oven, I was indeed in great pain ; at length I 
found out an experiment for that also, which was this : 
I made some earthen vessels very broad, but not deep ; that 
is to say, about two foot diameter, and not above nine inches 
deep ; these I burnt in the fire, as I had done the other, and 
laid them by ; and when I wanted to bake, I made a great 
fixe upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 115 

tiles of my own making, and burning also ; but I should not 
call them square. 

When the fire-wood was burnt pretty much into embers, 
or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to 
cover it all over, and there I let them lie, till the hearth was 
very hot ; then sweeping away all the embers, I set down 
my loaf, or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot 
upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the 
pot, to keep in, and add to the heat; and thus, as well as in 
the best oven in the world, I baked my barley loaves, and 
became in little time a mere pastry cook into the bargain; 
for I made myself several cakes of the rice, and puddings ; 
indeed I made no pies, neither had I anything to put into 
them, supposing I had, except the flesh either of fowls or 
goats. 

It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me 
up most part of the third year of my abode here ; for it is to 
be observed, that in the intervals of these things, I had my 
new harvest and husbandry to manage; for I reaped my 
corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I could, 
and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time 
to rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instru- 
ment to thrash it with. 

And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really 
wanted to build my barns bigger. I wanted a place to lay 
it up in; for the increase of the corn now yielded me so 
much, that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of 
the rice as much, or more ; insomuch, that now I resolved 
to begin to use it freely, for my bread had been quite gone 
a great while ; also I resolved to see what quantity would 
be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once a 
year. 

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley 
and rice was much more than I could consume in a year, so 
I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that I 
sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully 
provide me with bread, etc. 

All the while these things were doing, you may be sure 
my thoughts run many times upon the prospect of land 


n6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


which I had seen from the other side of the island, and I 
was not without secret wishes that I were on shore there, 
fancying the seeing the main land, and in an inhabited 
country I might find some way or other to convey myself 
farther, and perhaps at last find some means of escape. 

But, all this while, I made no allowance for the dangers of 
such a condition, and how I might fall into the hands of 
savages, and, perhaps, such as I might have reason to think 
far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa. That if I 
once came into their power, I should run a hazard more 
than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being 
eaten — for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean 
coasts were cannibals, or man eaters ; and I knew by the 
latitude that I could not be far off from that shore. That, 
suppose they were not cannibals, yet that they might kill me, 
as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had 
been served, even when they had been twenty or thirty 
together; much more I, that was but one, and could make 
little or no defense. All these things, I say, which I ought 
to have considered well of, and did cast up in my thoughts 
afterwards, yet took up none of my apprehensions at first ; 
but my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting over 
to the shore. 

Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long boat, 
with the shoulder- of- mutton sail, with which I sailed 
above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa ; but this was 
in vain. Then I thought I would go and look at our ship’s 
boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon the shore a 
great way in the storm, when we were first cast away. She 
lay almost where she did at first, but not quite ; and was 
turned by the force of the waves and the winds almost 
bottom upward, against a high ridge of beachy rough sand ; 
but no water about her as before, 

If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to have 
launched her into the water, the boat would have done well 
enough, and I might have gone back into the Brazils with 
her easily enough ; but I might have foreseen, that I could 
no more turn her, and set her upright upon her bottom, than 
I could remove the island. However, I went to the woods, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


IJ 7 

and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, 
resolved to try what I could do, suggesting to myself, that 
if I could but turn her down, I might easily repair the 
damage she had received, and she would be a very good 
boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily. 

I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, 
and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last, 
finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength, I 
fell to digging away the sand to undermine it, and so to 
make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide 
it right in the fall. 

But, when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, 
or to get under it, much less to move it forward towards the 
water; so I was forced to give it over. And yet, though I 
gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over, 
for the main, increased rather than decreased as the means 
for it seemed impossible. 

This at length put me upon thinking whether it was not 
possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the 
natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as I 
might say, without hands, viz: of the trunk of a great tree. 
This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased 
myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with 
my having much more convenience for it than any of the 
negroes or Indians, but not at all considering the particular 
inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians 
did, viz: want of hands to move it, when it was made, into 
the water, — a difficulty much harder for me to surmount 
than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them; 
for, what was it to me, that, when I had chosen a vast tree in 
the woods, I might with much trouble cut it down, if, after, 
I might be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside 
into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the 
inside to make it hollow, so to make a boat of it, if, after all 
this, I must leave it just there where I found it, and was not 
able to launch it into the water. 

One would have thought I could not have had the least 
reflection upon my mind of my circumstance while I was 
making this boat, but I should have immediately thought 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


1 18 

how I should get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so 
intent upon my voyage over the sea in it that I never once 
considered how I should get it off of the land. And, it was 
really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over 
forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathom of land, 
where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. 

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that 
ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased 
myself with the design, without determining whether I was 
ever able to undertake it. Not but that the difficulty of 
launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a 
stop to my own enquiries into it by this foolish answer, which 
I gave myself: “Let’s first make it; I’ll warrant I’ll find 
some way or other to get it along when ’tis done.” 

This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness 
of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went. I felled a cedar 
tree. I question much, whether Solomon ever had such a 
one for the building of the temple at Jerusalem. It was five 
feet ten inches diameter at the lower part, next the stump, 
and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty- 
two feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then parted 
into branches. It was not without infinite labor that I felled 
this tree. I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at 
the bottom. I was fourteen more getting the branches and 
limbs, and the vast spreading head of it cut off, which I 
hacked and hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inex- 
pressible labor. After this it cost me a month to shape it, 
and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom 
of a boat, that it might swim upright, as it ought to do. It 
cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and 
work it so as to make an exact boat of it. This I did, 
indeed, without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by 
the dint of hard labor, till I had brought it to be a very 
handsome periagua, and big enough to have carried six and 
twenty men, and consequently big enough to have carried 
me and all my cargo. 

When I had gone through this work, I was extremely 
delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than I 
ever saw a canoe, or periagua, that was made of one tree, in 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


11 9 

my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure, 
and there remained nothing but to get it into the water ; and 
had I gotten it into the water, I make no question but I 
should have began the maddest voyage, and the most 
unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken. 

But all my devices to get it into the water failed me, 
though they cost me infinite labor, too. It lay about one 
hundred yards from the water, and not more. But the first 
inconvenience was, it was up-hill towards the creek; well, to 
take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the 
surface of the earth, and so make a declivity. This I begun, 
and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains ; but who grudges 
pains, that have their deliverance in view ? But when this 
was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still 
much at one; for I could no more stir the canoe, than I 
could the other boat. 

Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to 
cut a dock, or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, see- 
ing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, I 
began this work, and when I began to enter into it, and calcu- 
late how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to 
be thrown out, I found, that by the number of hands I had, 
being none but my own, it must have been ten or twelve 
years before I should have gone through with it; for the 
shore lay high, so that at the upper end it must have been 
at least twenty foot deep ; so at length, though with great 
reluctancy, I gave this attempt over also. 

This grieved me heartily, and now I saw, though too late, 
the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and 
before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through 
with it. 

In the middle of this work, I finished my fourth year in 
this place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, 
and with as much comfort as ever before ; for, by a constant 
study, and serious application of the Word of God, and by 
the assistance of his grace, I gained a different knowledge 
from what I had before. I entertained different notions of 
things. I looked now upon the world as a thing remote, 
which I had nothing to do with, no expectation from, and, 


120 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


indeed, no desires about. In a word, I had nothing indeed 
to do with it, nor was ever like to have ; so I thought it 
looked as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter, viz : as a 
place I had lived in, but was come out of it ; and well might 
I say, as Father Abraham to Dives, “Between me and thee 
is a great gulf fixed.” 

In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness 
of the world here. I had neither the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the eye, or the pride of life. I had nothing to covet ; 
for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying. I was 
Lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I might call 
myself king, or emperor, over the whole country which I 
had possession of. There were no rivals. I had no com- 
petitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me. 
I might have raised ship loadings of corn, but I had no use 
for it ; so I let as little grow as I thought enough for my 
occasion. I had tortoise or turtles enough, but now and 
then one was as much as I could put to any use. I had tim- 
ber enough to have built a fleet of ships. I had grapes 
enough to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to 
have loaded that fleet when they had been built. 

But all I could make use of, was all that was valuable. I 
had enough to eat, and to supply my wants — and, what was 
all the rest to me ? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, 
the dog must eat it, or the vermin. If I sowed more corn 
than I could eat, it must be spoiled. The trees that I cut 
down, were lying to rot on the ground. I could make no 
more use of them than for fuel, and that I had no occasion 
for, but to dress my food. 

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to 
me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this 
world, are no farther good to us, than they are for our use ; 
and that whatever we may heap up, indeed, to give to others, 
we enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more. The most 
covetous, griping miser in the world would have been cured 
of the vice of covetousness, if he had been in my case, for I 
possessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with. I 
had no room for desire, except it was of things which I had 
not, and they were but trifles, though, indeed, of great use 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


1 2 I 


to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well 
gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas ! 
there the nasty, sorry useless stuff lay. I had no manner of 
business for it, and I often thought with myself, that I 
would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco 
pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn ; nay, I would 
have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot 
seed out of England, or for a handful of peas or beans, and 
a bottle of ink. As it was, I had not the least advantage by 
it, or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and grew 
mouldy with the damp of the cave, in the wet season; and 
if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the 
same case ; and they had been of no manner of value to me, 
because of no use. 

I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in 
itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as 
well as to my body. I frequently sat down to my meat with 
thankfulness, and admired the hand of God’s providence, 
which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I 
learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, 
and less upon the dark side ; and to consider what 1 en- 
joyed, rather than what I wanted ; and this gave me some- 
times such secret comforts that I cannot express them ; and 
which I take notice of here, to put those discontented peo- 
ple in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God 
has given them, because they see and covet something that 
he has not given them. All our discontents about what we 
want, appeared to me to spring from the want of thankful- 
ness for what we have. 

Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless 
would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as 
mine was, and this was, to compare my present condition 
with what I at first expected it should be ; nay, with what it 
would certainly have been, if the good providence of God 
had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer 
to the shore, where I not only could come at her, but could 
bring what I got out of her to the shore for my relief and 
comfort; without which, I had wanted for tools to work, 


122 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

weapons for defense, or gunpowder and shot for getting my 
food. 

I spent whole hours, I may say, whole days, in represent- 
ing to myself in the most lively colors, how I must have 
acted if I had got nothing out of the ship ; how I could not 
have so much as got any food, except fish and turtles ; and 
that, as it was long before I found any of them, I must have 
perished first. That I should have lived, if I had not per- 
ished, like a mere savage. That if I had killed a goat, or a 
fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flea or open them, 
or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to cut it 
up ; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my 
claws, like a beast. 

These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness 
of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present con- 
dition, with all its hardships and misfortunes. And this 
part, also, I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those 
who are apt in their misery to say, “Is any affliction like 
mine?” Let them consider how much worse the cases 
of some people are, and their case might have been, if Prov- 
idence had thought fit. 

I had another reflection which assisted me, also, to comfort 
my mind with hopes ; and this was, comparing my present 
condition with what I had deserved, and had therefore 
reason to expect from the hand of Providence. I had lived 
a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear 
of God. I had been well instructed by father and mother; 
neither had they been wanting to me, in their early endea- 
vors, to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind, a sense 
of my duty, and of what the nature and end of my being 
required of me. But, alas ! falling early into the sea-faring 
life, which of all the lives is the most destitute of the fear of 
God, though his terrors are always before them; I say, 
falling early into the sea-faring life, and into sea-faring 
company, all that little sense of religion which I had enter- 
tained, was laughed out of me by my mess-mates, by a 
hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death, which 
grew habitual to me, by my long absence from all manner of 
opportunities to converse with anything but what was like 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 123 

myself, or to hear anything that was good, or tended to- 
wards it. 4 

So void was I of everything that was good, or of the least 
sense of what I was, or was to be, that, in the greatest 
deliverances I enjoyed, such as my escape from Sallee; my 
being taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship ; my 
being planted so well in the Brazils ; my receiving the cargo 
from England, and the like ; I never had once the word, 
“thank God,” so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor 
in the greatest distress, had I so much as a thought to pray 
to him, or so much as to say, “ Lord have mercy upon me ; ” 
no nor to' mention the name of God, unless it was to swear 
by and blaspheme it. 

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, 
as I have already observed, on the account of my wicked 
and hardened life past; and, when I looked about me, and 
considered what particular providences had attended me 
since my coming into this place, and how God had dealt 
bountifully with me; had not only punished me less than my 
iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for 
me ; this gave me great hopes that my repentance was 
accepted, and that God had yet mercy in store for me. 

With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to 
resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of 
my circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for 
my condition; and, that I, who was yet a living man, ought 
not to complain, seeing I had not the due punishment of my 
sins ; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no 
reason to have expected in that place; that I ought never 
more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to give 
daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but a crowd 
of wonders could have brought. That I ought to consider I 
had been fed even by miracle, even as great as that of 
feeding Elijah by ravens; nay, by a long series of miracles; 
and that I could hardly have named a place in the unhabit- 
able part of the world where I could have been cast more to 
my advantage. A place, where, as I had no society, which 
was my affliction on one hand ; so I found no ravenous 
beasts, no furious wolves or tigers to threaten my life, no 


124 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


venomous creatures, or poisonous, which I might feed on to 
my hurt, no* savages to murder and devour me. 

In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow, one way, so it 
was a life of mercy, another ; and I wanted nothing to make 
it a life of comfort, but to be able to make my sense of 
God’s goodness to me, and care over me in this condition, 
be my daily consolation; and after I did make a just 
improvement of these things, I went away and was no more 
sad. 

I had now been here so long, that many things which I 
brought on shore for my help were either quite gone, or very 
much wasted and near spent. 

My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all 
but a very little, which I eked out with water a little and a 
little, till it was so pale it scarce left any appearance of 
black upon the paper. As long as it lasted, I made use of 
it to minute down the days of the month on which any 
remarkable thing happened to me, and first by casting up 
times past. I remember that there was a strange concurrence 
of days in the various providences which befel me; and 
which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days 
as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason to have looked 
upon with a great deal of curiosity. 

First, I had observed, that the same day that I broke 
away from my father and my friends, and run away to Hull, 
in order to go to sea, the same day afterwards I was taken 
by the Sallee man-of-war, and made a slave. 

The same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck 
of that ship in Yarmouth roads, that same day-year after- 
wards I made my escape from Sallee in the boat. 

The same day of the year I has born on, viz : the 30th of 
September, that same day I had my life so miraculously 
saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast on shore on this 
island, so that my wicked life and my solitary life began 
both on a day. 

The next thing to my ink being wasted, was that of my 
bread, I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship; 
this I had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but 
one cake of bread a day for above a year, and yet I was quite 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I2 5 

without bread for near a year before I got any corn of my 
own, and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at 
all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next 
to miraculous. 

My clothes began to decay, too, mightily. As to linen, I 
had none a good while, except some checkered shirts which 
I found in the chests of the other seamen, and which I care- 
fully preserved, because many times I could bear no other 
clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to me 
that I had among all the men’s clothes of the ship almost 
three dozen of shirts. There were also several thick watch- 
coats of the seamen, which were left indeed, but they were 
too hot to wear; and though it is true that the weather was 
so violent hot that there was no need of clothes, yet I could 
not go quite naked ; no, though I had been inclined to it, 
which I was not, nor could not abide the thoughts of it, 
though I was all alone. 

The reason why I could not go quite naked, was, I could 
not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked, as 
with some clothes on ; nay, the very heat frequently blistered 
my skin; whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some 
motion, and whistling under that shirt, was twofold cooler 
than without it. No more could I ever bring myself to go 
out in the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat 
of the sun beating with such violence as it does in that place, 
would give me the head-ache presently, by darting so 
directly on my head, without a cap or hat on, so that I 
could not bear it ; whereas, if I put on my hat, it would 
presently go away. 

Upon those views I began to consider about putting the 
few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order. I 
had worn out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was 
now to try if I could not make jackets out of the great watch- 
coats which I had by me, and with such other materials as I 
had ; so I set to work a tailoring, or rather indeed a botch- 
ing, for I made most piteous work of it. However, I made 
shift to make two or three new waistcoats, which I hoped 
would serve me a great while; as for breeches or drawers, I 
made but a very sorry shift indeed, till afterward. 


126 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the crea- 
tures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had hung 
them up stretched out with sticks in the sun, by which 
means some of them were so dry and hard that they were fit 
for little, but others it seems were very useful. The first 
thing I made of these was a great cap for my head, with the 
hair on the outside to shoot off the rain ; and this I per- 
formed so well, that after this I made me a suit of clothes 
wholly of these skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches 
open at knees, and both loose, for they were rather wanting 
to keep me cool than to keep me warm. I must not omit to 
acknowledge that they were wretchedly made ; for if I was a 
bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor. However, they were 
such as I made very good shift with ; and when I was 
abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of my waistcoat and 
cap being outermost, I was kept very dry. 

After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to make 
me an umbrella. I was indeed in great want of one, and had 
a great mind to make one. I had seen them made in the 
Brazils, where they are very useful in the great heats which 
are there; and I felt the heats every jot as great here, and 
greater, too, being nearer the equinox ; besides, as I was 
obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, 
as well for the rains as the heats. I took a world of pains 
at it, and was a great while before I could make anything 
likely to hold ; nay, after I thought I had hit the way, I 
spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind ; but at 
last I made one that answered indifferently well. The main 
difficulty I found was to make it let down. I could make it 
to spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was 
not portable for me any way but just over my head, which 
would not do. However, at last, as I said, I made one to 
answer, and covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that 
it cast off the rains like a pent-house, and kept off the sun 
so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the 
weather with greater advantage than I could before in the 
coolest, and when I had no need of it, could close it and 
carry it under my arm. 

Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


127 


composed by resigning to the will of God, and throwing 
myself wholly upon the disposal of his Providence. This 
made my life better than sociable ; for when I began to 
regret the want of conversation, I would ask myself whether 
thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as I 
hope I may say, with even God himself, by ejaculations, was 
not better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in 
the world ? 

I cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraor- 
dinary thing happened to me, but I lived on in the same 
course, in the same posture and place, just as before. The 
chief things I was employed in, besides my yearly labor of 
planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both 
which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock 
of one year’s provisions beforehand ; I say, besides this 
yearly labor, and my daily labor cf going out with my gun, 
I had one labor to make me a canoe, which at last I finished. 
So that by digging a canal to it of six foot wide, and four 
foot deep, I brought it into the creek, almost half a mile. 
As for the first, which was so vastly big, as I made it with- 
out considering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I should 
be able to launch it; so never being able to bring it to the 
water, or bring the water to it, I was obliged to let it lie 
where it was, as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser 
next time. Indeed, the next time, though I could not get a 
tree proper for it, and in a place where I could not get the 
water to it, at any less distance than as I have said, near 
half a mile, yet as I saw it was practicable at last, I never 
gave it over ; and though I was near two years about it, yet 
I never grudged my labor, in hopes of having a boat to go 
off to sea at last. 

Plowever, though my little periagua was finished, yet the 
size cf it was not at all answerable to the design which I had 
in view, when I made the first ; I mean, of venturing over 
to the terra firma, where it was above forty miles broad. 
Accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put an end 
to that design, and now I thought no more of it. But as I 
had a boat, my next design was to make a tour round the 
island ; for as I had been on the other side, in one place, 


128 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


crossing, as I have already described it, over the land, so 
the discoveries I made in that little journey made me very 
eager to see other parts of the coast, and now I had a boat, 
I thought of nothing but sailing round the island. 

For this purpose, that I might do everything with discre- 
tion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat, 
and made a sail to it, out of some of the pieces of the ship’s 
sail, which lay in store, and of which I had a great stock 
by me. 

Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I found 
she would sail very well ; then I made little lockers or boxes, 
at either end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries and 
ammunition, etc., into, to be kept dry, either from the rain or 
the spray of the sea ; and a little long, hollow place I cut in 
the inside of the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a 
flap to hang down over it to keep it dry. 

I fixed my umbrella, also, in a step at the stern, like a mast, 
to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off of 
me like an awning; and thus I every now and then took a 
little voyage upon the sea, but never went far out, not far 
from the little creek ; but at last, being eager to view the cir- 
cumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my tour, 
and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting 
in two dozen of my loaves (cakes I should rather call them) 
of barley bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice, a food I 
eat a great deal of, a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and 
powder and shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats 
of those which, as I mentioned before, I had saved out of 
the seamen’s chests ; these I took, one to lie upon, and the 
other to cover me in the night. 

It was the sixth of November, in the sixth year of my 
reign, or my captivity, which you please, that I set out on 
this voyage, and I found it much longer than I expected ; 
for though the island itself was not very large, yet when I 
came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge of rocks 
lie out of above two leagues into the sea, some above water, 
some under it; and beyond that, a shoal of sand, lying dry 
half a league more ; so that I was obliged to go a great way 
out to sea to double the point. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


129 


When first I discovered them, I was going to give over 
my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far 
it might oblige me to go out to sea; and above all, doubting 
how I should get back again ; so I came to an anchor, for 
I had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken 
graphlin, which I got out of the ship. 

Having secured my boat, I took my gun, and went on 
shore, climbing up upon a hill, which seemed to over-look 
that point, where I saw the full extent of it, and resolved to 
venture. 

In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I per- 
ceived a strong, and indeed, a most furious current, which 
run to the east, and even came close to the point; and I took 
the more notice of it, because I saw there might be some 
danger, that when I came into it, I might be carried out to 
sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island 
again; and indeed, had I not gotten first up upon this hill, I 
believe it would have been so ; for there was the same cur- 
rent on the other side the island, only, that it set off at a 
further distance ; and I saw there was a strong eddy under 
the shore ; so I had nothing to do but to get in out of the 
first current, and I should presently be in an eddy. 

I lay here, however, two days ; because the wind blowing 
pretty fresh at E. S. E., and that being just contrary to the 
said current, made a great breach of the sea upon the point; 
so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore 
for the breach, nor to go too far off because of the stream. 

The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated 
over night, the sea was calm, and I ventured ; but I am a 
warning-piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots ; for no 
sooner was I come to the point, when even I was not my 
boat’s length from the shore, but I found myself in a great 
depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it 
carried my boat along with it with such violence, that all I 
could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of it ; 
but I found it hurried me farther and farther out from the 
eddy, which was on my left hand. There was no wind stir- 
ring to help me, and all I could do with my paddlers signified 
nothing; and now I began to give myself over for lost; for 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


1 3 ° 

as the current was on both sides the island, I knew in a few 
leagues distance they must join again, and then I was irre- 
coverably gone ; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; 
so that I had no prospect before me but of perishing ; not 
by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving for 
hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big 
almost as I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and I 
had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my 
earthen pots ; but what was all this to being driven into the 
vast ocean, where to be sure, there was no shore, no main 
land, or island, for a thousand leagues at least. 

And now I saw how easy it was for the Providence of 
God to make the most miserable condition mankind could 
be in, worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate, soli- 
tary island, as the most pleasant place in the world, and all 
the happiness my heart could wish for, was to be but there 
again. I stretched out my hands to it with eager wishes. 
O happy desert, said I, I shall never see thee more ! O mis- 
erable creature, said I, whither am I going! Then I re- 
proached myself with my unthankful temper, and how I had 
repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I 
give to be on shore there again. Thus we never see the 
true state of our condition, till it is illustrated to us by its 
contraries ; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by 
the want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine the con- 
sternation I was now in, being driven from my beloved 
island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide 
ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever 
recovering it again. However, I worked hard, till indeed 
my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my boat as 
much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the cur- 
rent which the eddy lay on, as possibly I could ; when about 
noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I felt a 
little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from the 
S. S. E. This cheered my heart a little, and especially when 
in about half an hour more, it blew a pretty small, gentle 
gale. By this time I was gotton at a frightful distance from 
the island, and had the least cloud or hazy weather inter- 
vened, I had been undone another way, too ; for I had no 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


131 

compass on board, and should never have known how to 
have steered towards the island, if I had but once lost 
sight of it ; but the weather continuing clear, I applied 
myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, 
standing away to the north, as much as possible, to get 
out of the current. 

Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began 
to stretch away, I saw, even by the clearness of the water, 
some alteration of the current was near ; for where the cur- 
rent was so strong, the water was foul ; but perceiving the 
water clear, I found the current abate, and presently I found 
to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon 
some rocks ; these rocks I found caused the current to part 
again, and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly, 
leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other returned 
by the repulse of the rocks, and made a strong eddy, which 
ran back again to the north-west, with a very sharp stream. 

They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to 
them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just 
going to murder them, or who have been in such like ex- 
tremities, may guess what my present surprise of joy was, 
and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy, 
and the wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to 
it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong 
tide or eddy under foot. 

This eddy carried me about a league in my way back 
again directly towards the island, but about two leagues 
more to the northward than the current which carried me 
away at first; so that when I came near the island, I found 
myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the 
other end of the island opposite to that which I went out 
from. 

When I had made something more than a league of way 
by the help of this current or eddy, I found it was spent and 
served me no farther. However, I found that being be- 
tween the two great currents, viz : that on the south side, 
which had hurried me away, and that on the north, which 
lay about a league on the other side, — I say, between these 
two, in the wake of the island, I found the water at least still 


1 3 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and running no way ; and having still a breeze of wind fair 
for me, I kept on steering directly for the island, though not 
making such fresh way as I did before. 

About four o’clock in the evening, being then within 
about a league of the island, I found the point of the rocks 
which occasioned this disaster, stretching out, as is de- 
scribed before, to the southward, and casting off the current 
more southwardly, had, of course, made another eddy to the 
north, and this I found very strong, but not directly setting 
the way my course lay, which was due west, but almost full 
north. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched across 
this eddy, slanting north-west, and, in about an hour, came 
within about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth 
water, I soon got to land. 

When I was on shore, I fell on my knees and gave God 
thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts 
of my deliverance by my boat ; and refreshing myself with 
such things as I had, I brought my boat close to the shore 
in a little cove that I had spied under some trees, and laid 
me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labor and 
fatigue of the voyage. 

I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my 
boat. I had run so much hazard, and knew too much the 
case to think of attempting it by the way I went out; and 
what might be at the other side (I mean the west side) I 
know not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures ; so 
I only resolved in the morning to make my way westward 
along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where I 
might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again if 
I wanted her. In about three miles or thereabout, coasting 
the shore, I came to a very good inlet or bay, about a mile 
over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet or 
brook, where I found a very convenient harbor for my boat, 
and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made 
on purpose for her. Here I put in, and having stowed my 
boat very safe, I went on shore to look about me, and see 
where I was. 

I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where 
I had been before, when I travelled on foot to that shore ; 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


133 


so taking nothing out of my boat, but my gun and my 
umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march. 
The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I 
had been upon, and I reached my old bower in the evening, 
where I found everything standing as I left it; for I always 
kept it in good order, being, as I said before, my country- 
house. 

I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to 
rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep ; but 
judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise I 
must be in, when I was waked out of my sleep by a voice 
calling me by my name several times, “ Robin, Robin, Robin 
Crusoe, poor Robin Crusoe ! Where are you, Robin Cru- 
soe ? Where are you ? Where have you been ? ” 

I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing 
or paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and 
with walking the latter part, that I did not wake thoroughly; 
but dozing between sleeping and waking, thought I dreamed 
that somebody spoke to me. But, as the voice continued to 
repeat, “ Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,” at last I began to 
wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, 
and started up in the utmost consternation ; but, no sooner 
were my eyes open, but I saw my Poll sitting on the top of 
the hedge, and immediately knew that it was he that spoke 
to me; for just in such bemoaning language I had used to 
talk to him, and teach him; and he had learned it so per- 
fectly, that he would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill 
close to my face, and cry, “ Poor Robin Crusoe, where are 
you? Where have you been? How came you here?” and 
such things as I had taught him. 

However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that 
indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before I 
could compose myself. First, I was amazed how the crea- 
ture got thither, and then how he should just keep about the 
place, and no where else. But, as I was well satisfied it 
could be nobody but honest Poll, I got it over ; and holding 
out my hand, and calling him by his name Poll, the sociable 
creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to 
do, and continued talking to me, “ Poor Robin Crusoe,” and 


*34 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


“how did I come here?” and “where had I been?” just as 
if he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so I carried 
him home along with me. 

I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, 
and had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect 
upon the danger I had been in. I would have been very 
glad to have had my boat again on my side of the island; 
but I knew not how it was practicable to get it about. As to 
the east side of the island, which I had gone round, I knew 
well enough there was no venturing that way; my very heart 
would shrink, and my very blood run chill but to think of it. 
And as to the other side of the island, I did not know how 
it might be there ; but supposing the current ran with the 
same force against the shore at the east as it passed by it 
on the other, I might run the same risk of being driven 
down the stream, and carried by the island, as I had been 
before, of being carried away from it; so with these thoughts 
I contented myself to be without any boat, though it had 
been the product of so many months’ labor to make it, and 
of so many more to get it unto the sea. 

In this government of my temper I remained near a year, 
lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may well suppose ; 
and my thoughts being very much composed as to my con- 
dition, and fully comforted in resigning myself to the dis- 
positions of Providence, I thought I lived really very happily 
in all things, except that of society. 

I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exer- 
cises which my necessities put me upon applying myself to, 
and I believe could, upon occasion, make a very good 
carpenter, especially considering how few tools I had. 

Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my 
earthenware, and contrived well enough to make them with 
a wheel, which I found infinitely easier and better ; because 
I made things round and shapeable, which before were filthy 
things indeed to look on. But I think I was never more 
vain of my own performance, or more joyful for anything I 
found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe, 
and though it was a very ugly, clumsy thing, when it was 
done, and only burnt red like other earthen ware, yet as it 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*35 

was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke, I was ex- 
ceedingly comforted with it; for I had been always used to 
smoke, and there were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them 
at first, not knowing that there was tobacco on the island; 
and afterwards, when I searched the ship again, I could not 
come at any pipes at all. 

In my wicker ware, also, I improved much, and made 
abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention 
showed me, though not very handsome, yet they were such 
as were very handy and convenient for my laying things up 
in, or fetching things home in. For example, if I killed a 
goat abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flea it, and dress it, 
and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket; and the 
like by a turtle, — I could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a 
piece or two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and 
bring them home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. 
Also, large deep baskets were my receivers for my corn, 
which I always rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, 
and kept it in great baskets. 

I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably, 
and this was a want which it was impossible for me to 
supply, and I began seriously to consider what I must do 
when I should have no more powder; that is to say, how I 
should do to kill any goat. I had, as is observed in the 
third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her 
up tame, and I was in hope of getting a h e-goat, but I could 
not by any means bring it to pass, still my kid grew an old 
goat ; and I could never find in my heart to kill her, till she 
died at last of mere age. 

But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, 
as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to 
study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether 
I could not catch some of them alive, and, particularly,. I 
wanted a she-goat great with young. 

To this purpose I made snares to hamper them, and I do 
believe they were more than once taken in them, but my 
tackle was not good, for I had no wire, and I always found 
them broken, and my bait devoured. 

At length, I resolved to try a pit-fall ; so I dug several 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


136 

large pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the 
goats used to feed, and over these pits I placed hurdles of 
my own making too, with a great weight upon them; and 
several times I put ears of barley and dry rice, without set- 
ting the trap, and I could easily perceive that the goats had 
gone in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the mark of 
their feet. At length, I set three traps in one night, and 
going the next morning I found them all standing, and yet 
the bait eaten and gone. This was very discouraging; how- 
ever, I altered my trap, and, not to trouble you with particu- 
lars, going one morning to see my trap, I found in one of 
them a large old he-goat, and in one of the other three kids, 
a male and two females. 

As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him, he was 
so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him ; that is to say, to 
go about to bring him away alive, which was what I wanted. 
I could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor 
would it answer my end. So I e’ en let him out, and he ran 
away as if he had been frighted out of his wits. But I had 
forgot then, what I learned afterwards, that hunger will tame 
a lion. If I had let him stay there three or four days with- 
out food, and then have carried him some water to drink, 
and then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of 
the kids, for they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures 
where they are well used. 

However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better 
at that time ; then I went to the three kids, and taking them 
one by one, I tied them with strings together, and, with some 
difficulty, brought them all home. 

It was a good while before they would feed, but throwing 
them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to 
be tame. And now I found that if I expected to supply 
myself with goat-flesh when I had no powder or shot left, 
breeding some up tame was my only way, when perhaps I 
might have them about my house like a flock of sheep. 

But then it presently occurred to me, that I must keep the 
tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when 
they grew up ; and the only way for this w r as to have some 
enclosed piece of ground, well fenced, either with hedge or 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 137 

pale, to keep them in so effectually, that those within might 
not break out, or those without break in. 

This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet, 
as I saw there was an absolute necessity of doing it, my first 
piece of work was to find out a proper piece of ground, viz : 
where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water 
for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. 

Those who understand such enclosures will think I had 
very little contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very 
proper for all these, being a plain, open piece of meadow- 
land, or savanna (as our people call it in the western colo- 
nies), which had two or three little rills of fresh water in it, 
and at one end was very woody ; I say, they will smile at my 
forecast, when I shall tell them I began my enclosing of this 
piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale 
must have been at least two miles about. Nor, was the mad- 
ness of it so great as to the compass, for, if it was ten miles 
about, I was like to have time enough to do it in. But I did 
not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much 
compass, as if they had had the whole island, and I should 
have so much room to chase them in, that I should never 
catch them. 

My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty 
yards, when this thought occurred to me; so I presently 
stopped short, and, for the first beginning, I resolved to en- 
close a piece of about 150 yards in length, and 100 yards in 
breadth, which, as it would maintain as many as I should 
have in any reasonable time, so as my flock increased, I 
could add more ground to my enclosure. 

This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work 
with courage. I was about three months hedging in the 
first piece, and till I had done it I tethered the three 
kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me 
as possible to make them familiar ; and very often I would 
go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, 
and feed them out of my hand ; so that, after my enclosure 
was finished, and I let them loose, they would follow me up 
and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn. 

This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


138 

had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all ; and in two 
years more I had three and forty, besides several that I took 
and killed for my food. And after that I enclosed five sev- 
eral pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to 
drive them into, to take them as I wanted, and gates out of 
one piece of ground into another. 

But this was not all, for now I not only had goat’s flesh to 
feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which indeed 
in my beginning I did not so much as think of, and which, 
when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable sur- 
prise. For now I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a 
gallon or two of milk in a day. And as Nature, who gives 
supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally 
how to make use of it, so I, that had never milked a cow, 
much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made, very readily 
and handily, though after a great many essays and mis- 
carriages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and 
never wanted it afterwards. 

How mercifully can our great Creator treat his creatures, 
even in those conditions in which they seemed to be over- 
whelmed in destruction ! How can he sweeten the bitterest 
providences, and give us cause to praise him for dungeons 
and prisons ! What a table was here spread for me in a 
wilderness, where I saw nothing at first but to perish for 
hunger ! 

It would have made a stoic smile to have seen me and my 
little family sit down to dinner; there was my majesty, the 
prince and lord of the whole island. I had the lives of all 
my subjects at my absolute command. I could hang, draw, 
give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all my 
subjects. 

Then, to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, attended 
by my servants. Poll, as if lie had been my favorite, was the 
only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now 
grown very old and crazy, and had found no species to mul- 
tiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand ; and two 
cats, one on one side the table, and one on the other, ex- 
pecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of 
special favor. 



DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVE} BY C. HEATH, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE IN HIS 


ISLAND DRESS. 


Page is q 




A 




ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*39 


But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore 
at first, for they were both of them dead, and had been in- 
terred near my habitation by my own hand ; but one of them 
having multiplied by I know not what kind of a creature, 
these were two which I had preserved tame, whereas the rest 
run wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to 
me at last ; for they would often come into my house, and 
plunder me, too, till at last I was obliged to shoot them, and 
did kill a great many; at length they left me with this at- 
tendance, and in this plentiful manner I lived ; neither could 
I be said to want anything but society, and of that, in some 
time after this, was I like to have too much. 

I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have 
the use of my boat, though very loth to run any more haz- 
ards; and, therefore, sometimes, I sat contriving ways to get 
her about the island, and at other times I sat myself down 
contented enough without her. But I had a strange uneasi- 
ness in my mind to go down to the point of the island, 
where, as I have said, in my last ramble, I went up the hill 
to see how the shore lay, and how the current set, that I 
might see what I had to do. This inclination increased 
upon me every day, and at length I resolved to travel thither 
by land, following the edge of the shore. I did so. But had 
any one in England been to meet such a man as I was, it 
must either have frightened them, or raised a great deal of 
laughter; and, as I frequently stood still to look at myself, I 
could not but smile at the notion of my travelling through 
Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a dress. Be 
pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows : 

I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s skin, 
with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun 
from me, as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck; 
nothing being so hurtful, in these climates, as the rain upon 
the flesh under the clothes. 

I had a short jacket of goat-skin, the skirts coming down 
to about the middle of my thighs ; and a pair of open-kneed 
breeches of the same ; the breeches were made of the skin of 
an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either 
side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; 


140 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair of 
some things, I scarce know what to call them, like buskins, 
to flap over my legs, and lace on either side, like spatter- 
dashes ; but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all 
the rest of my clothes. 

I had on a broad belt of goat’s-skin dried, which I drew 
together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles, 
and, in a kind of frog on either side of this, instead of 
a sword and a dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet, one 
on one side, one on the other. I had another belt not so 
broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my 
shoulder ; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two 
pouches, both made of goat’s-skin, too ; in one of which 
hung my powder, in the other my shot. At my back I car- 
ried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head 
a great clumsy, ugly goat skin umbrella, but which, after all, 
was the most necessary thing I had about me, next to my 
gun. As for my face, the color of it was really not so mu- 
latto-like as one might expect from a man not at all careful 
of it, and living within nineteen degrees of the equinox. My 
beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter 
of a yard long ; but as I had both scissors and razors suffi- 
cient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my 
upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahom- 
etan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by some Turks, who 
I saw at Sallee ; for the Moors did not wear such, though 
the Turks did; of these mustachios or whiskers, I will not 
say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but 
they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such 
as in England would have passed for frightful. 

But all this is by the by; for, as to my figure, I had so few 
to observe me, that it was of no manner of consequence ; so 
I say no more to that part. In this kind of figure I went 
my new journey, and was out five or six days. I travelled 
first along the sea-shore, directly to the place where I first 
brought my boat to an anchor, to get up upon the rocks ; 
and having no boat now to take care of, I went over the 
land a nearer way, to the same height that I was upon be- 
fore; when looking forward to the point of the rocks which 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


1 4 1 

I lay out, and which was obliged to double with my boat, as 
is said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth 
and quiet — no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there 
than in other places. 

I was at a strange loss fo understand this, and resolved to 
spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing from 
the sets of the tide had occasioned it ; but I was presently 
convinced how it was, viz : that the tide of ebb setting from 
the west, and joining with the current of waters from some 
great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this 
current ; and that, according as the wind blew more forcibly 
from the west, or from the north, this current came near, or 
went farther from the shore; for waiting thereabouts till 
evening, I went up to the rock again, and then the tide of 
ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before* 
only, that it run farther off, being near half a league from the 
shore ; whereas, in my case, it set close upon the shore, and 
hurried me and my canoe along with it, which at another 
time it would not have done. 

This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do 
but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I 
might very easily bring my boat about the island again. 
But when I began to think of putting it in practice, I had 
such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the 
danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with 
any patience ; but on the contrary, I took up another resolu- 
tion, which was more safe, though more laborious, and this 
was, that I would build, or rather make, me another periagua 
or canoe ; and so have one for one side of the island, and 
one for the other. 

You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, 
two plantations in the island ; one, my little fortification or 
tent, with the wall about it under the rock, with the cave 
behind me, which by this time I had enlarged into several 
apartments, or caves, one within another. One of these, 
which was the driest, and largest, and had a door out beyond 
my wall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall 
joined to the rock, was all filled up with the large earthen 
pots, of which I have given an account, and with fourteen or 


142 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels 
each, where I laid up my stores of provision, especially my 
corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw, and the 
other rubbed out with my hand. 

As for my wall made, as before, with long stakes or piles, 
those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown 
so big, and spread so very much, that there was not the 
least appearance to any one’s view of any habitation behind 
them. 

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the 
land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn- 
ground, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which 
duly yielded me their harvest in its season ; and whenever I 
had occasion for more corn, I had more land adjoining as fit 
as that. 

Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a 
tolerable plantation there also ; for first, I had my little 
bower, as I called it, which I kept in repair; that is to say, I 
kept the hedge which circled it in constantly fitted up to its 
usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside ; I 
kept the trees, which at first were no more than my stakes, 
but were now grown very firm and tall ; I kept them always 
so cut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and 
make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually 
to my mind. In the middle of this I had my tent always 
standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles set up for 
that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renew- 
ing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch, with 
the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft 
things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our 
sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to 
cover me ; and here, whenever I had occasion to be absent 
from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation. 

Adjoining to this, I had my enclosures for my cattle, that 
is to say, my goats. And as I had taken an inconceivable 
deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground, so I was so 
uneasy to see it kept entire, least the goats should break 
through, that I never left off, till with infinite labor I had 
stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so 



ROBINSON CRUSOE DISCOVERS THE PRINT OF A MAN’S FOOT. 

Page 143. 

























ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*43 


near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, 
and there was scarce room to put a hand through between 
them ; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all 
did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like 
a wall, indeed, stronger than any wall. 

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I 
spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared neces- 
sary for my comfortable support ; for I considered the keep- 
ing up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand, would be 
a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter and cheese for me as 
long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and 
that keeping them in my reach, depended entirely upon my 
perfecting my enclosures to such a degree, that I might be 
sure of keeping them together ; which, by this method in- 
deed, I so effectually secured, that when these little stakes 
began to grow, I had planted them so very thick, I was 
forced to pull some of them up again. 

In this place, also I had, my grapes growing, which I prin- 
cipally depended on for my winter store of raisins ; and 
which I never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best 
and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet; and, indeed, 
they were not agreeable only, but physical, wholesome, 
nourishing, and refreshing, to the last degree. 

As this was, also, about half way between my other 
habitation and the place where I had laid up my boat, I 
generally stayed, and lay here in my way thither; for I used 
frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all things about or 
belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went out 
in her to divert myself ; but no more hazardous voyages 
would I go, nor scarce ever above a stone’s cast or two from 
the shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of my 
knowledge by the currents or winds, or any other accident. 
But now I come to a new scene of my life. 

It happened, one day, about noon, going towards my boat, 
I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked 
foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the 
sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen 
an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, I could hear 
nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising ground to 


144 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


look farther. I went up the shore, and clown the shore, but 
it was all one, I could see no other impression but that one. 
I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to 
observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room 
for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, 
heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew 
not, nor could in the least imagine. But, after innumerable 
fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of 
myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we 
say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, 
looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking 
every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance 
to be a man. Nor is it possible to describe how many 
various shapes affrighted imagination represented things to 
me in ; how many wild ideas were found every moment in 
my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came 
into my thoughts by the way. 

When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever 
after this, I fled into it like one pursued ; whether I went 
over by the ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole 
in the rock, which I called a door, I cannot remember. No, 
nor could I remember the next morning; for never frighted 
hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind 
than I to this retreat. 

I slept none that night. The farther I was from the 
occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehensions were; 
which is something contrary to the nature of such things, 
and especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear; 
but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the 
thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to 
myself, even though I was now a great way off it. Some- 
times I fancied it must be the devil; and reason joined in 
with me upon this supposition. For how should any other 
thing in human shape come into the place ? Where was the 
vessel that brought them ? What marks were there of any 
other footsteps ? And how was it possible a man should 
come there? But then, to think that Satan should take 
human shape upon him in such a place, where there 
could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*45 

of his foot behind him; and that, even, for no purpose too, 
for he could not be sure I should see it. This was an 
amusement the other way. I considered that the devil 
might have found out abundance of other ways to have 
terrified me, than this of the single print of a foot. That as 
I lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never 
have been so simple to leave a mark in a place where it was 
ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not, and 
in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea upon a high 
wind would have defaced entirely. All this seemed incon- 
sistent with the thing itself, and with all the notions we 
usually entertain of the subtilty of the devil. 

Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me 
out of all apprehensions of its being the devil. And I pres- 
ently concluded then, that it must be some more dangerous 
creature, viz: that it must be some of the savages of the 
main land over against me, who had wandered out to sea in 
their canoes, and either driven by the currents, or by con- 
trary winds, had made the island ; and had been on shore, 
but were gone away again to sea, being as loth, perhaps, to 
have stayed in this desolate island, as I would have been to 
have had them. 

While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was 
very thankful in my thoughts, that I was so happy as not to 
be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, 
by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants 
had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for 
me. Then, terrible thoughts racked my imagination about 
their having found my boat, and that there were people 
here ; and that, if so, I should certainly have them come 
again in greater numbers and devour me ; that if it should 
happen so that they should not find me, yet they would find 
my enclosure, destroy all my corn, carry away all my flock 
of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want. 

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope; all that 
former confidence in God, which was founded upon such 
wonderful experience as I had had of his goodness, now 
vanished, as if he that had fed me by miracle hitherto, could 
not preserve by his power the provision which he had made 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


146 

for me by his goodness. I reproached myself with my easi- 
ness, that would not sow any more corn one year than would 
just serve me till the next season, as if no accident could 
intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the 
ground ; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved 
for the future to have two or three years’ corn beforehand, 
so that, whatever might come, I might not perish for want of 
bread. 

How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of 
man ! and by what secret, differing springs are the affections 
hurried about, as differing circumstances present ! To-day 
we love what to-morrow we hate ; to-day we seek what 
to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we 
fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This 
was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively 
manner imaginable ; for I, whose only affliction was, that I 
seemed banished from human society, that I was alone, cir- 
cumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, 
and condemned to what I called silent life ; that I was as 
one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered 
among the living, or to appear among the rest of his 
creatures ; that to have seen one of my own species would 
have seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the 
greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme 
blessing of salvation, could bestow. I say, that I should 
now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man, and 
was ready to sink into the ground but at the shadow or silent 
appearance of a man having set his foot in the island. 

Such is the uneven state of human life : and it afforded 
me a great many curious speculations afterwards, when I 
had a little recovered my first surprise. I considered that 
this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good 
Providence of God had determined for me ; that as I could 
not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all 
this, so, I was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was 
his creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern 
and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit ; and who, as 
I was a creature who had offended him, had likewise a judi- 
cial right to condemn me to what punishment he thought fit ; 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 147 

and that it was my part to submit to bear his indignation, 
because I had sinned against him. 

I then reflected that God, who was not only righteous but 
omnipotent, as he had thought fit thus to punish and afflict 
me, so he was able to deliver me ; that if he did not think fit 
to do it, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself abso- 
lutely and entirely to his will ; and on the other hand, it was 
my duty also to hope in him, pray to him, and quietly to 
attend the dictates and directions of his daily providence. 

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may 
say, weeks and months ; and one particular effect of my 
cogitations on this occasion, I cannot omit, viz : one morn- 
ing early, lying in my bed, and filled with thought about my 
danger from the appearance of savages, I found it discom- 
posed me very much ; upon which those words of the Scrip- 
ture came into my thoughts, “ Call upon me in the day of 
trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me.” 

Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was 
not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to 
pray earnestly to God for deliverance. When I had done 
praying, I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first 
words that presented to me, were, “ Wait on the Lord, and be 
of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart ; wait, I say, 
on the Lord.” It is impossible to express the comfort this 
gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and 
was no more sad, — at least, not on that occasion. 

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and 
reflections, it came into my thought one day, that all this 
might be a mere chimera of ray own ; and that this foot 
might be the print of my own foot, when I came on shore 
from my boat ; this cheered me up a little, too, and I began 
to persuade myself it was all a delusion ; that it was nothing 
else but my own foot ; and why might not I come that way 
from the boat, as well as I v*>as going that way to the boat; 
again, I considered also, that I could by no means tell for 
certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and that if at 
last this was only the print oi my own foot, I had played the 
part of those fools who strive to make stories of spectres 


148 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

and apparitions, and then are frightened at them more than 
anybody. 

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again; 
for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and 
nights ; so that I began to starve for provision ; for I had 
little or nothing within doors, but some barley cakes and 
water. Then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked 
too, which usually was my evening diversion ; and the poor 
creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of 
it ; and indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost 
dried up their milk. 

Heartening myself therefore with the belief that this was 
nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and so I might 
be truly said to start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad 
again, and went to my country house, to milk my flock ; but 
to see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked 
behind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down 
my basket, and run for my life, it would have made any one 
have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that 
I had been lately most terribly frightened, — and so indeed I 
had. 

However, as I went down thus two or three days, and 
having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to 
think there was really nothing in it, but my own imagination. 
But I could not persuade myself fully of this, till I should go 
down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot, and 
measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude 
or fitness, that I might be assured it was my own foot. But 
when I came to the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, 
that when - 1 laid up my boat, I could not possibly be on 
shore anywhere there about; secondly, when I came to 
measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so 
large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with 
new imaginations, and gave me the vapors again, to the 
highest degree ; so that I shook with cold, like one in an 
ague. And I went home again, filled with the belief that 
some man or men had been on shore there ; or, in short, that 
the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised before, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 149 

I was aware ; and what course to take for my security I 
knew not. 

Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed 
with fear! It deprives them of the use of those means 
which reason offers for their relief. The first thing I pro- 
posed to myself, was, to throw down my enclosures, and 
turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that the enemy 
might not find them, and then frequent the island in prospect 
of the same, or the like booty ; then to the simple thing of 
digging up my two corn fields, that they might not find such 
a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the island ; then 
to demolish my bower, and tent, that they might not see any 
vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to look farther, in 
order to find out the persons inhabiting. 

These were the subject of the first night’s cogitation, after 
I was come home again, while the apprehensions which had 
so over-run my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was 
full of vapors, as above. Thus, fear of danger is ten thou- 
sand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent 
to the eyes ; and we find the burthen of anxiety greater by 
much than the evil which we are anxious about ; and which 
was worse than all this, I had not that relief in this trouble 
from the resignation I used to practice, that I hoped to 
have. 1 looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not 
only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had 
forsaken him ; for I did not now take due ways to compose 
my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon 
his Providence, as I had done before, for my defense and 
deliverance ; which, if I had done, I had, at least, been more 
cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps 
carried through it with more resolution. 

This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all night; 
but in the morning I fell asleep, and, having by the amuse- 
ment of my mind, been, as it were, tired, and my spirits 
exhausted, I slept very soundly, and waked much better com- 
posed than I had ever been before ; and now I began to 
think sedately ; and upon the utmost debate with myself, I 
concluded, that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, 
fruitful, and no farther from the main land than as I had 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*S° 

seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine. 
That although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on 
the spot; yet that there might sometimes come boats off 
from the shore, who either with design, or perhaps never, 
but when they were driven by cross winds, might come to 
this place. 

That I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met 
with the least shadow or figure of any people yet ; and that 
if at any time they should be driven here, it was probable 
they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing 
they had never thought fit to fix there upon any occasion, to 
this time. 

That the most I could suggest any danger from, was, from 
any such casual accidental landing of straggling people from 
the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, 
were here against their wills ; so they made no stay here, 
but went off again with all possible speed, seldom staying 
one night on shore, least they should not have the help of 
the tides, and daylight back again ; and that therefore I had 
nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I 
should see any savages land upon the spot. 

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so 
large, as to bring a door through again, which door, as I 
said, came out beyond where my fortification joined to the 
rock. Upon maturely considering this, therefore, I resolved 
to draw me a second fortification, in the same manner of a 
semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had 
planted a double row of trees, about twelve years before, of 
which I made mention. These trees having been planted 
so thick before, they wanted but a few piles to be driven 
between them, that they should be thicker and stronger, and 
my wall would be soon finished. 

So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wall was 
thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and everything 
I could think of to make it strong ; having in it seven little 
holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the 
inside of this, I thickened my wall to above ten foot thick, 
with continual bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it 
at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it ; and through 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


* 5 ! 

the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which 
I took notice that I got seven on shore out of the ship. 
These, I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into 
frames that held them like a carriage, that so I could fire all 
the seven guns in two minutes’ time. This wall I was many 
a weary month a-finishing, and yet never thought myself 
safe till it was done. 

When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my 
wall, for a great way every way, as full with stakes or sticks 
of the osier-like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as 
they could well stand ; insomuch, that I believe I might set 
in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space 
between them and my wall, that I might have room to see 
an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young 
trees, if they attempted to approach my outer wall. 

Thus, in two years’ time, I had a thick grove, and in five or 
six years’ time, I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so 
monstrous thick and strong, that it was indeed perfectly 
impassable; and no men of what kind soever, would ever 
imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less a hab- 
itation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go 
in and out — for I left no avenue, — it was by setting two lad- 
ders, one, to a part of the rock which was low, and then broke 
in, and left room to place another ladder upon that; so, 
when the two ladders were taken down, no man living could 
come down to me without mischieving himself; and if 
they had come down, they were still on the outside of my 
outer wall. 

Thus, I took all the measures human prudence could sug- 
gest for my own preservation ; and it will be seen at length, 
that they wer^not all together without just reason, though I 
foresaw nothing at that time, more than my mere fear 
suggested to me. 

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my 
other affairs, for I had a great concern upon me, for my 
little herd of goats ; they were not only a present supply to 
me upon every occasion, and began to be sufficient to me 
without the expense of powder and shot, but also without 
the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones ; and I was loth to 


J 5 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse 
up over again. 

To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of 
but two ways to preserve them ; one was to find another 
convenient place to dig a cave under ground, and to drive 
them into it every night ; and the other was to enclose two 
or three little bits of land, remote from one another and as 
much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half 
a dozen young goats in each place, so that if any disaster 
happened to the flock in general, I might be able to raise 
them again with little trouble and time. And this, though it 
would require a great deal of time and labor, I thought was 
the most rational design. 

Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most 
retired parts of the island, and I pitched upon one which was 
as private indeed as my heart could wish for ; it was a little 
damp piece of ground in the middle of the hollow and thick 
woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself once 
before, endeavoring to come back that way from the eastern 
part of the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near 
three acres, so surrounded with woods that it was almost an 
enclosure by nature ; at least, it did not want near so much 
labor to make it so, as the other pieces of ground I had 
worked so hard at. 

I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and 
in less than a month’s time, I had so fenced it round, that 
my flock or herd, call it which you please, who were not so 
wild now as at first they might be supposed to be, were 
well enough secured in it. So, without any farther delay, 
I removed ten young she-goats and two h e-goats to this 
piece ; and when they were there, I continued to perfect the 
fence till I had made it as secure as the other, which, how- 
ever, I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by 
a great deal. 

All this labor I was at the expense of purely from my 
apprehensions on the account of the print of a man’s foot 
which I had seen; for as yet I never saw any human crea- 
ture come near the island, and I had now lived two years 
under these uneasinesses, which indeed made my life much 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


153 

less comfortable than it was before, as may well be im- 
agined by any who know what it is to live in the constant 
snare of the fear of man; and this, I must observe with grief 
too, that the discomposure of my mind had too great im- 
pressions also upon the religious part of my thoughts, for 
the dread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and 
cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself 
in a due temper for application to my Maker, at least 
not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which 
I was wont to do. I rather prayed to God as under great 
affliction and pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, and 
in expectation every night of being murdered and devoured 
before morning; and I must testify from my experience, 
that a temper of peace, thankfulness, love and affection, is 
much more the proper frame for prayer, than that of terror 
and discomposure ; and that under the dread of mischief 
impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting perform- 
ance of the duty of praying to God, than he is for repentance 
on a sick-bed ; for these discomposures affect the mind as 
the others do the body ; and the discomposure of the mind 
must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, 
and much greater — praying to God being properly an act of 
the mind, not of the body. 

But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my 
little living stock, I went about the whole island, searching 
for another private place, to make such another deposit; 
when wandering more to the west point of the island than I 
had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I thought I saw 
a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found a pro- 
spective-glass, or two, in one of the seamen’s chests, which 
I saved out of our ship ; but I had it not about me, and this 
was so remote, that I could not tell what to make of it ; 
though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to hold to 
look any longer. Whether it was a boat, or not, I do not 
know ; but, as I descended from the hill, I could see no 
more of it, so I gave it over ; only I resolved to go no more 
out without a prospective-glass in my pocket. 

When I was come down the hill, to the end of the island, 
where indeed I had never been before, I was presently con- 


*54 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


vinced, that the seeing the print of a man’s foot, was not 
such a strange thing in the island as I imagined ; and but 
that it was a special Providence that I was cast upon the 
side of the island, where the savages never came. I should 
easily have known that nothing was more frequent than for 
the canoes from the main, when they happened to be a little 
too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island for 
harbor; likewise, as they often met, and fought in their 
canoes, the victors having taken any prisoners, would bring 
them over to this shore, where, according to their dreadful 
customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; 
of which hereafter. 

When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said 
above, being the S. W. point of the island, I was perfectly 
confounded and amazed; nor is it possible for me to ex- 
press the horror of my mind at seeing the shore spread with 
skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies ; and, 
particularly, I observed a place where there had been a fire 
made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where it 
is supposed the savage wretches had sat down to their inhu- 
man feastings upon the bodies of their fellow creatures. 

I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I 
entertained no notion of any danger to myself from it for a 
long while. All my apprehensions were buried in the 
thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and 
the horror of the degeneracy of human nature ; which, 
though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a view 
of before. In short, I turned away my face from the horrid 
spectacle, my stomach grew sick, and I was just at the 
point of fainting, when nature discharged the disorder from 
my stomach, and, having vomited with an uncommon vio- 
lence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay in 
the place a moment ; so I got me up the hill again, with 
all the speed I could, and walked on towards my own 
habitation. 

When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood 
still awhile, as amazed ; and then, recovering myself, I looked 
up with the utmost affection of my soul, and with a flood of 
tears in my eyes, gave God thanks that had cast my first lot 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*55 

in a part of the world where I was distinguished from such 
dreadful creatures as these ; and that, though I had 
esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given 
me so many comforts in it, that I had still more to give 
thanks for than to complain of ; and this, above all, that I 
had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted with 
the knowledge of himself, and the hope of his blessing, 
which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all 
the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer. 

In this frame of thankfulness, I went home to my castle, 
and began to be much easier now, as to the safety of my 
circumstances, than ever I was before ; for I observed that 
these wretches never came to this island in search of what 
they could get ; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not 
expecting anything here ; and having often, no doubt, been 
up in the covered woody part of it, without finding anything 
to their purpose. I knew I had been here now almost 
eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of human 
creature there before ; and I might be here eighteen more, 
as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover my- 
self to them, which I had no manner of occasion to do, it 
being my only business to keep myself entirely concealed 
where I was, unless I found a better sort of creatures than 
cannibals to make myself known to. 

Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage 
wretches that I have been speaking of, and of the wretched, 
inhuman custom of their devouring and eating one another 
up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept close within 
my own circle for almost two years after this. When I say 
my own circle, I mean by it, my three plantations, viz : my 
castle, my country seat, which I called my bower, and my 
enclosure in the woods ; nor did I look after this for any 
other use than as an enclosure for my goats ; for the aver- 
sion which nature gave me to these hellish wretches, was 
such, that I was fearful of seeing them, as of seeing the 
devil himself ; nor did I so much as go to look after my 
boat, in all this time, but began rather to think of making 
me another ; for I could not think of ever making any more 
attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


J 5 6 

least I should meet with some of these creatures at sea, in 
which, if I had happened to have fallen into their hands I 
knew what would have been my lot. 

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in 
no danger of being discovered by these people, began to 
wear off my uneasiness about them ; and I began to live just 
in the same composed manner as before ; only with this dif- 
ference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes more 
about me than I did before, least I should happen to be 
seen by any of them ; and, particularly, I was more cautious 
of firing my gun, least any of them being on the island, 
should happen to hear of it; and it was therefore a very 
good providence to me, that I had furnished myself with a 
tame breed of goats, that I need not hunt any more about 
the woods, or shoot at them ; and if I did catch any of them 
after this, it was by traps and snares, as I had done before ; 
so, that for two years after this, I believe I never fired my 
gun once off, though I never went out without it ; and which 
was more, as I had saved three pistols out of the ship, I 
always carried them out with me, or at least two of them, 
sticking them in my goat-skin belt; also I furbished up one 
of the great cutlasses, that I had out of the ship, and made 
me a belt to put it on also ; so that I was now a most formid- 
able fellow to look at, when I went abroad, if you add to 
the former description of myself, the particular of two 
pistols, and a great broad-sword, hanging at my side in a 
belt, but without a scabbard. 

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I 
seemed, excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my 
former calm, sedate way of living. All these things tended to 
showing me more and more how far my condition was from 
being miserable, compared to some others ; nay, to many 
other particulars of life, which it might have pleased God to 
have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how little 
repining there would be among mankind, at any condition of 
life, if people would rather compare their condition with 
those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always 
comparing them with those which are better, to assist their 
murmurings and complainings. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*57 


As in my present condition there were not really many 
things which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights 
I had been in about these savage wretches, and the concern 
I had been in for my own preservation, had taken off the 
edge of my invention for my own conveniences ; and I had 
dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts 
too much upon; and that was, to try if I could not make 
some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself 
some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I 
reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for I presently 
saw there would be the want of several things necessary to 
the making my beer, that it would be impossible for me to 
supply ; as first, casks to preserve it in, which was a thing, 
that as I have observed already, I could never compass ; no, 
though I spent not many days, but weeks, nay months in 
attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next place, I had 
no hops to make it keep; no yeast to make it work; no 
copper or kettle to make it boil ; and yet all these things, 
notwithstanding, I verily believe, had not these things inter- 
vened, I mean the frights and terrors I was in about the 
savages, I had undertaken it, and, perhaps, brought it to 
pass, too ; for I seldom gave anything over without accom- 
plishing it, when I once had it in my head enough to begin it. 

But my invention now run quite another way ; for night 
and day I could think of nothing but how I might destroy 
some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody entertainment, 
and, if possible, save the victim they should bring hither to 
destroy. It would take up a larger volume than this whole 
work is intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I 
hatched, or rather brooded upon in my thought, for the 
destroying these creatures, or at least frightening them, so 
as to prevent their coming hither any more ; but all was 
abortive, nothing could be possible to take effect, unless I was 
to be there to do it myself ; and what could one man do among 
them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them 
together, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with 
which they could shoot as true to a mark as I could with 
my gun? 

Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


158 

they made their fire, and put in five or six pound of gun, 
powder, which, when they kindled their fire, would conse, 
quently take fire, and blow up all that was near it ; but as in 
the first place, I should be very loth to waste so much 
powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity 
of one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at 
any certain time, when it might surprise them, and at best, 
that it would do little more than just blow the fire about 
their ears and fright them, but not sufficient to make them 
forsake the place ; so I laid it aside, and then proposed that 
I would place myself in ambush, in some convenient place, 
with my three guns, all double loaded, and in the middle of 
their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be 
sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot; 
and then falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my 
sword, I made no doubt but that if there was twenty I should 
kill them all. This fancy pleased my thoughts for some 
weeks, and I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it; 
and sometimes, that I was just going to let fly at them in my 
sleep. 

I went so far with it in my imagination, that I employed 
myself several days to find out proper places to put myself 
in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them ; and I went 
frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more 
familiar to me ; and especially while my mind was thus filled 
with thoughts of revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or 
thirty of them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I 
had at the place, and at the signals of the barbarous wretches 
devouring one another, abated my malice. 

Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, 
where I was satisfied I might securely wait still I saw any 
of their boats coming, and might then, even before they 
would be ready to come on shore, convey myself unseen into 
thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow large 
enough to conceal me entirely; and where I might sit, and 
observe all their bloody doing, and take my full aim at their 
heads, when they were so close together, as that it would be 
next to impossible that I should miss my shot, or that 1 
could fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*59 

In this place then I resolved to fix my design, and accord- 
ingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. 
The two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and 
four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pistol bullets; 
and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful of swam 
shot, of the largest size ; I also loaded my pistols with about 
four bullets each, and in this posture, well provided with 
ammunition for a second and third charge, I prepared myself 
for my expedition. 

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my 
imagination put it in practice, I continually made my tour every 
morning up to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, 
as I called it, about three miles or more, to see if I could 
observe any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or 
standing over towards it ; but I began to tire of this hard 
duty, after I had for two or three months constantly kept my 
watch ; but came always back without any discovery, there 
having not in all that time been the least appearance, not 
only on, or near the shore, but not on the whole ocean, so 
far as my eyes or glasses could reach every way. 

As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, 
so long also I kept up the vigor of my design; and my 
spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable form, for so 
outrageous an execution as the killing twenty or thirty naked 
savages, for an offence which I had not at all entered into a 
discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my passions 
were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural 
custom of that people of the country, who it seems had been 
suffered by Providence, in his wise disposition of the world, 
to have no other guide than that of their own abominable 
and vitiated passions, and consequently were left, and per- 
haps had been so for some ages, to act such horrid things, 
and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature 
entirely abandoned of Heaven, and acted by some hellish 
degeneracy, could have run them into. But now when, as I 
have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion 
which I had made so long, and so far, every morning in 
vain, so my opinion of the action itself began to alter, and I 
began with cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider what it 


i6o 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


was I was going to engage in. What authority or call I had, 
to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as 
criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit for so many ages 
to suffer unpunished, to go on, and to be, as it were, the 
executioners of his judgments one upon another. How far 
these people were offenders against me, and what right I 
had to engage in the quarrel of that blood, which they shed 
promiscuously one upon another. I debated this very often 
with myself thus : How do I know what God himself judges 
in this particular case ? it is certain these people either do 
not commit this as a crime ; it is not against their own con- 
sciences reproving, or their light reproaching them. They 
do not know it to be an offense, and then commit it in de- 
fiance of Divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we 
commit. They think it no more a crime to kill a captive 
taken in war, than we do to kill an ox ; nor to eat human 
flesh, than we do to eat mutton. 

When I had considered this a little, it followed neces- 
sarily, that I was certainly in the wrong in it; that these 
people were not murderers in the sense that I had before 
condemned them, in my thoughts, any more than those 
Christians were murderers, who often put to death the pris- 
oners taken in battle ; or more frequently, upon many occa- 
sions, put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving 
quarter, though they threw down their arms and submitted. 

In the next place it occurred to me, that albeit the usage 
they thus gave one another, was thus brutish and inhuman, 
yet it was really nothing to me ; these people had done me 
no injury. That if they attempted me, or I saw it necessary 
for my immediate preservation to fall upon them, something 
might be said for it; but that as I was yet out of their 
power, and they had really no knowledge of me, and conse- 
quently no design upon me ; and therefore it could not be 
just for me to fall upon them. That this would justify the 
conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practiced in 
America, and where they destroyed millions of these people, 
who, however they were idolaters and barbarians, and had 
several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as 
sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


161 


Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the rooting them 
out of the country, is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence 
and detestation, by even the Spaniards themselves, at this 
time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a mere 
butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifia- 
ble either to God or man ; and such, as for which the very 
name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible 
to all people of humanity, or of Christian compassion. As 
if the kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the 
product of a race of men who were without principles of 
tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable, 
which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the 
mind. 

These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a 
kind of a full stop ; and I began by little and little to be off 
of my design, and to conclude I had taken wrong measures 
in my resolutions to attack the savages ; that it was not my 
business to meddle with them, unless they first attacked me, 
and this it was my business if possible to prevent; but that 
if I were discovered and attacked, then I knew my duty. 

On the other hand, I argued with myself, that this really 
was the way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and 
destroy myself ; for unless I was sure to kill every one that 
not only should be on shore at that time, but that should 
ever come on shore afterwands, if but one of them escaped, 
to tell their country people what had happened, they would 
come over again by thousands to revenge the death of their 
fellows, and I should only bring upon myself a certain de- 
struction, which at present, I had no manner of occasion for. 

Upon the whole, I concluded that neither in principles 
nor in policy, I ought one way or other to concern myself in 
this affair. That my business was by all possible means to 
conceal myself from them, and not to leave the least signal 
to them to guess by, that there were any living creatures 
upon the island, I mean of human shape. 

Religion joined in with this prudential, and I was con- 
vinced now many ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty 
when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruc- 
tion of innocent creatures, I mean innocent as to me. As 
6 


162 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had 
nothing to do with them. They were national, and I ought 
to leave them to the justice of God, who is the governor of 
nations, and knows how by national punishments, to make a 
just retribution for national offenses ; and to bring public 
judgments upon those who offend in a public manner, by 
such ways as best pleases him. 

This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a 
greater satisfaction to me, than that I had not been suffered 
to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe 
would have been no less a sin, than that of wilful murder, if 
I had committed it ; and I gave most humble thanks on my 
knees to God, that had thus delivered me from blood guilti- 
ness; beseeching him to grant me the protection of his 
Providence, that I might not fall into the hands of the bar- 
barians ; or that I might not lay my hands upon them, 
unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in 
defense of my own life. 

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this ; 
and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon 
these wretches, that in all that time, I never once went up 
the hill to see whether there was any of them in sight, or to 
know whether any of them had been on shore there or not, 
that I might not be tempted to renew any of my contriv- 
ances against them, or be provoked by any advantage which 
might present itself to fall upon them ; only this I did, I 
went and removed my boat, which I had on the other side 
the island, and carried it down to the east end of the whole 
island, where I ran it into a little cove which I found under 
some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the cur- 
rents, the savages durst not, at least, would not, come with 
their boats upon any account whatsoever. 

With my boat I carried away everything that I had left 
there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare 
going thither, viz : A mast and sail which I had made for 
her, and a thing like an anchor, but indeed, which could not 
be called either anchor or grapling ; however, it was the 
best I could make of its kind. All these I removed, that 
there might not be the least shadow of any discovery, or 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 163 

any appearance of any boat, or of any human habitation 
upon the island. 

Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than 
ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my 
constant employment, viz: to milk my she-goats, and man- 
age my little flock in the wood; which, as it was quite on 
the other part of the island, was quite out of danger; for 
certain it is, that these savage people, who sometimes 
haunted this island, never came with any thoughts of finding 
anything here ; and, consequently, never wandered off from 
the coast; and I doubt not, but they might have been sev- 
eral times on shore, after my apprehensions of them had 
made me cautious as well as before ; and, indeed, I looked 
back with some horror upon the thought of what my con- 
dition would have been, if I had chopped upon them, and 
been discovered before that, when naked and unarmed, 
except with one gun, and that loaden often only with small 
shot, I walked everywhere peeping and peeping about the 
island, to see what I could get. What a surprise should I 
have been in, if, when I discovered the print of a man’s foot, 
I had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and 
found them pursuing me, and by the swiftness of their 
running no possibility of my escaping them. 

The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within 
me, and distressed my mind so much, that I could not soon 
recover it, to think what I should have done, and how I not 
only .should not have been able to resist them, but even 
should not have had presence of mind enough to do what I 
might have done ; much less, what now after so much con- 
sideration and preparation I might be able to do : indeed, 
after serious thinking of these things, I should be very mel- 
ancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while ; but I 
resolved it at last all into thankfulness to that Providence, 
which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and 
had kept me from those mischiefs which I could no way 
have been the agent in delivering myself from ; because I 
had not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the 
least supposition of it being possible. 

This renewed a contemplation, which often had come to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


164 

my thoughts in former time, when first I began to see the 
merciful dispositions of heaven, in the dangers we run 
through in this life. How wonderfully we are delivered, 
when we know nothing of it. How, when we are in a 
quandary, as we call it, a doubt or hesitation, whether to go 
this way, or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, 
when we intend to go that way; nay, when sense, our own 
inclination, and perhaps business has called us to go the 
other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from we 
know not what springs, and by we know not what, power, 
shall over-rule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards 
appear, that had we gone that way which we should have 
gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we 
should have been ruined and lost ; upon these, and many 
like reflections, I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, 
that whenever I found those secret hints, or pressings of 
my mind, to doing, or not to doing anything that presented, 
or to going this way or that way, I never failed to obey the 
secret dictate ; though I knew no other reason for it, than 
that such a pressure, or such a hint hung upon my mind. 
I could give many examples of tlie success of this conduct 
in the course of my life ; but more especially in the latter 
part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many 
occasions which it is very likely I might have taken notice 
of, if I had seen with the same eyes then, that I see with 
now. But it is never too late to be wise ; and I cannot but 
advise all considering men, whose lives are attended with 
such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even not so extra- 
ordinary, not to slight such secret intimations of Providence, 
let them come from what invisible intelligence they will ; that 
I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot account for ; but 
certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and the 
secret communication between those embodied, and those 
unembodied; and such a proof as can never be withstood; 
of which I shall have occasion to give some very remarkable 
instances, in the remainder of my solitary residence in this 
dismal place. 

I believe the reader of this will not think strange, if I 
confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


i6S 

in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to all 
invention, and to all the contrivances that I had laid for my 
future accommodations and conveniences. I had the care 
of my safety more now upon my hands, than that of my 
food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood 
now, for fear the noise I should make should be heard; 
much less would I fire a gun, for the same reason; and 
above all, I was intolerably uneasy at making any fire, least 
the smoke which is visible at a great distance in the day 
should betray me ; and for this reason I removed that part 
of my business which required fire ; such as burning of pots, 
and pipes, etc., into my new apartments in the woods, where 
after I had been some time, I found to my unspeakable 
consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went in 
a vast way, and where, I dare say, no savage, had he been 
at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in, nor 
indeed, would any man else, but one who like me wanted 
nothing so much as a safe retreat. 

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great 
rock where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see 
abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Provi- 
dence), I was cutting down some thick branches of trees, to 
make charcoal ; and before I go on, I must observe the rea- 
son of my making this charcoal, which was thus : 

I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I 
said before ; and yet I could not live there without baking 
my bread, cooking my meat, etc., so I contrived to bum 
some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, 
till it became chark, or dry coal ; and then putting the fire 
out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the 
other services, which fire was wanting for at home, without 
danger of smoke. 

But this is by the by. While I was cutting down some 
wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick branch of 
low brushwood, or underwood, there was a kind of hollow 
place; I was curious to look into it, and getting with diffi- 
culty into the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large; that 
is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps 
another with me; but I must, confess to you, I made more 


i66 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


haste out than I did in, when looking farther into the place, 
and which was perfectly dark, I saw two broad, shining eyes 
of some creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which 
twinkled like two stars, the dim light from the cave’s mouth 
shining directly in and making the reflection. 

However, after some pause, I recovered myself, and 
began to call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself that 
he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live 
twenty years in an island all alone ; and that I durst to be- 
lieve there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful 
than myself; upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up 
a great firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick 
flaming in my hand ; I had not gone three steps in, but I 
was almost as much frighted as I was before ; for I heard a 
very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was 
followed by a broken noise, as if of words half expressed, 
and then a deep sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed 
struck with such a surprise that it put me into a cold sweat; 
and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answer for it 
that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking 
up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a 
little, with considering that the power and presence of God 
was everywhere, and was able to protect me ; upon this I 
stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, 
holding it up a little over my head, I saw, lying on the 
ground a most monstrous, frightful, old he-goat, just making 
his will, as we say, and gasping for life, and dying indeed of 
mere old age. 

I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he 
essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I 
thought with myself, he might even lie there; for if he had 
frighted me so, he would certainly fright any of the savages, 
if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there, while 
he had any life in him. 

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look 
round me, when I found the cave was but very small, that is 
to say, it might be about twelve foot over, but in no man- 
ner of shape, either round or square, no hands having ever 
been employed in making it, but those of mere nature. I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


167 

observed, also, that there was a place at the farther side of it, 
that went farther, but was so low that it required me to 
creep upon my hands and knees to go into it, and whither I 
went I knew not; so, having no candle, I gave it over for 
some time, but resolved to come again the next day, pro- 
vided with candles, and a tinder-box, which I had made of 
the lock of one of the muskets, with some wild-fire in the 
pan. 

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large 
candles of my own making; for I made very good candles 
now of goat’s tallow ; and going into this low place, I was 
obliged to creep upon all fours, as I have said, almost ten 
yards ; which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold 
enough, considering that I knew not how far it might go, 
nor what was beyond it. When I was got through the 
strait, I found the roof rose higher up, I believe nearly 
twenty feet ; but never was such a glorious sight seen in the 
island, I dare say, as it was to look round the sides and 
roof of this vault, or cave. The walls reflected a hundred 
thousand lights to me from my two candles ; what it was in 
rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious stones, or 
gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I know not. 

The place I was in' was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, 
of its kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the 
floor was dry and level, and had a sort of small, loose gravel 
upon it, so that there was no nauseous or venomous creature 
to be seen, neither was there any damp or wet on the sides 
or roof. The only difficulty in it was the entrance, which 
however, as it was a place of security, and such a retreat as 
I wanted, I thought that was a convenience ; so that I was 
really rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved without any 
delay, to bring some of those things which I was most anx- 
ious about, to this place ; particularly, I resolved to bring 
hither my magazine of powder, and all my spare arms, viz: 
two fowling-pieces, for I had three in all; and three muskets, 
for of them I had eight in all; so I kept at my castle only 
five, which stood ready mounted, like pieces of cannon, on 
my outmost fence, and were ready also to take out upon any 
expedition. 


i68 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I took 
occasion to open the barrel of powder which I took up out 
of the sea, and which had been wet ; and I found that the 
water had penetrated about three or four inches into the 
powder on every side, which, caking and growing hard, had 
preserved the inside like a kernel in a shell ; so that I had 
near sixty pounds of very good powder in the centre of the 
cask, and this was an agreeable discovery to me at that 
time; so I carried all away thither, never keeping above two 
or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of 
a surprise of any kind ; I also carried thither all the lead I 
had left for bullets. 

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which 
were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks where none 
could come at them; for I persuaded myself, while I was 
here, if five hundred savages were to hunt me, they could 
never find me out ; or if they did, they would not venture to 
attack me here. 

The old goat who I found expiring, died in the mouth of 
the cave, the next day after I made this discovery, and 
I found it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw 
him in, and cover him with earth, than to drag him out ; so 
I interred him there, to prevent offense to my nose. 

I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this 
island, and was so naturalized to the place, and to the man- 
ner of living, that could I but enjoyed the certainty that no 
savages would come to the place to disturb me, I could have 
been content to have capitulated for spending the rest of my 
time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me down 
and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to 
some little diversions and amusements, which made the 
time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal, than it did 
before; as first, I had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to 
speak ; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately 
and plain, that it was very pleasant to me ; and he lived with 
me no less than six and twenty years. How long he might 
live afterwards, I know not ; though I know they have a 
notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred years ; perhaps 
poor Poll may be alive there still, calling after “ Poor Robin 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


169 

Crusoe,” to this day. I wish no Englishman the ill luck to 
come there and hear him ; but if he did, he would certainly 
believe it was the devil. My dog was a very pleasant and 
loving companion to me, for no less than sixteen years of 
my time, and then died of mere old age; as for my cats, they 
multiplied, as I have observed, to that degree that I was 
obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from 
devouring me and all I had ; but at length, when the two old 
ones I brought with me were gone, and after some time 
continually driving them from me, and letting them have no 
provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except 
two or three favorites, which I kept tame ; and whose young, 
when they had any, I always drowned ; and these were part 
of my family. Besides these, I always kept two or three 
household kids about me, who I taught to eat out of my 
hand ; and I had two more parrots which talked pretty well, 
and would all call “ Robin Crusoe,” but none like my first; 
nor, indeed, did I take the pains with any of them that I had 
with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose names I 
know not, who I caught upon the shore, and cut their wings; 
and the little stakes which I had planted before my castle-wall 
being now grown up to a good thick grove, these fowls all 
lived among these low trees, and bred there, which was very 
agreeable to me ; so that, as I said above, I began to be very 
well contented with the life I led, if it might but have been 
secured from the dread of the savages. 

But it was otherwise directed ; and it may not be amiss 
for all people who shall meet with my story, to make this 
just observation from it, viz : how frequently in the course 
of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, 
and which, when we are fallen into it, is the most dreadful 
to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliver- 
ance, by which alone we can be raised again from the afflic- 
tion we are fallen into. I could give many examples of this 
in the course of my unaccountable life ; but in nothing was 
it more particularly remarkable, than in the circumstances 
of my last years of solitary residence in this island. 

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in 
my twenty-third year ; and this being the southern solstice, 


170 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


for winter I cannot call it, was the particular time of my 
harvest, and required my being pretty much abroad in the 
fields ; when going out pretty early in the morning, even 
before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeino- 
a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me 
of about two miles towards the end of the island, where I 
had observed some savages had been as before, but not on 
the other side; but, to my great affliction, it was on my 
side of the island. y 

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stepped 
short within my grove, not daring to go out, least I might 
e surprised ; and yet, I had no more peace within, from the 
apprehensions I had, that if these savages, in rambling over 
the island, should find my corn standing, or cut, or any of 
my works and improvements, they would immediately con- 
clude that there were people in the place, and would then 
never give over till they had found me out. In this extrem- 
ity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder 
alter me, and made all things without look as wild and 
natural as I could. 

* The / 1 , 1 P re P ared m yself within, putting myself in a pos- 
tuie of defense. I loaded all my cannon, as I called them- 
that is to say, my muskets, which were mounted upon mv 
new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend 
myse f to the last gasp, not forgetting seriously to commend 
myseif to the Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to 
God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians ; and 
in this posture I continued about two hours, but began to 
be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no 
spies to send out. 

. ^ f . ter Slttln g a while longer, and musing what I should do 
in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance any 
longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill 
where there was a flat place, as I observed before, and then 
pulhng the ladder up after me, I set it up again, and 
. unted to the top of the hill; and pulling out my perspec- 
tive glass, which I had taken „„ parpo-efl laid "e dTn 
flat on my belly, on the ground, and began to look for the 
place. I presently found there was no less than nine naked 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


171 

savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, not to 
warm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being 
extreme hot; but, as I supposed, to dress some of their 
barbarous diet of human flesh, which they had brought with 
them, whether alive or dead I could not know. 

They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled 
up upon the shore ; and as it was then tide of ebb, they 
seemed to me to wait for the return of the flood to go away 
again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion this sight 
put me into, especially seeing them come on my side the 
island, and so near me, too; but when I observed their 
coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I began 
afterwards to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied 
that I might go abroad with safety all the time of the tide 
of flood, if they were not on shore before ; and having made 
this observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with 
the more composure. 

As I expected, so it proved ; for as soon as the tide made 
to the westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or pad- 
dle, as we call it) all away. I should have observed, that, 
for an hour and more before they went off, they went to 
dancing, and I could easily discern their postures and 
gestures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by my nicest 
observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not 
the least covering upon them ; but whether they were men 
or women, that I could not distinguish. 

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns 
upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my 
great sword by my side, without a scabbard, and with all the 
speed I was able to make, I went away to the hill, where I 
had discovered the first appearance of all ; and as soon as I 
got thither, which was not less than two hours (for I could 
not go apace, being so loaden with arms as I was), I per- 
ceived there had been three canoes more of savages on that 
place ; and looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea 
together, making over for the main. 

This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when going 
down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror whidi 
the dismal work they had been about had left behind it, viz : 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


172 

the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, 
eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and 
sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that I 
began now to premeditate the destruction of the next that I 
saw there, let them be who, or how many soever. 

It seemed evident to me, that the visits which they thus 
make to this island, are not very frequent; for it was above 
fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there 
again ; that is to say, I neither saw them, or any footsteps 
or signals of them, in all that time ; for as to the rainy sea- 
sons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so 
far ; yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of 
the constant apprehensions I was in of their coming upon 
me by surprise ; from whence, I observe, that the expecta- 
tion of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if 
there is no room to shake off that expectation, -or those 
apprehensions. 

During all this time, I was in the murdering humor, and 
took up most of my hours, which should have been better 
employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon 
them, the very next time I should see them ; especially 
if they should be divided, as they were the last time, into 
two parties ; nor did I consider at all, that if I killed one 
party, suppose ten or a dozen, I was still the next day, or 
week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad 
infinitum , till I should be at length no less a murderer 
than they were in being man-eaters, and perhaps much 
more so. 

I spent my days now in great perplexity, and anxiety of 
mind, expecting that . I should one day or other fall into the 
hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any 
time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me 
with the greatest care and caution imaginable ; and now I 
found to my great comfort, how happy it was that I pro- 
vided for a tame flock or herd of goats ; for I durst not, 
upon any account, fire my gun, especially near that side of 
the island where they usually came, least I should alarm the 
savages ; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to 
have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hun- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 173 

dred canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew what 
to expect. 

However, I wore out a year and three months more, before 
I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them 
again, as I shall soon observe. It is true, they might have 
been there once, or twice ; but either they made no stay, or 
at least I did not hear them ; but in the month of May, as 
near as I could calculate, and in my four-and-twentieth year, 
I had a very strange encounter with them, of which in its 
place. 

The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen 
months’ interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dreamed 
always frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep 
in the night. In the day great troubles overwhelmed my 
mind, and in the night I dreamed often of killing the sav- 
ages, and of the reasons why I might justify the doing of it. 
But to waive all this for a while. It was in the middle of May, 
on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden 
calendar would reckon, — for I marked all upon the post still — 
I say, it was the sixteenth of May, that it blew a very great 
storm of wind, all day, with a great deal of lightning and 
thunder, and a very foul night it was after it. I know not 
what was the particular occasion of it, but as I was reading 
in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts 
about my present condition, I was surprised with a noise of 
a gun, as I thought, fired at sea. 

This was, to be sure, a surprise of quite different nature 
from any I had met with before; for the notions this put 
into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up 
in the greatest haste imaginable, and in a trice clapped my 
ladder to the middle place of the rock, and pulled it after 
me, and mounting it the second time, got to the top of the 
hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a 
second gun, which, accordingly, in about half a minute, I 
heard, and by the sound, knew that it was from that part of 
the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat. 

I immediately considered that this must be some ship in 
distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other 
ship in company, and fired these guns for signals of distress, 


i74 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and to obtain help. I had this presence of mind at that 
minute, as to think that, though I could not help them, it 
may be they might help me ; so I brought together all the 
dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome 
pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and 
blazed freely ; and, though the wind blew very hard, yet it 
burnt fairly out; that I was certain, if there was any such 
thing as a ship, they must need see it, and no doubt they 
did ; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up, I heard another 
gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. 
I plied my fire all ni^ght long, till day broke; and when it 
was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw something at a 
great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail, 
or a hull, I could not distinguish, no, not with my glasses, 
the distance was so great, and the weather still something 
hazy also ; at least, it was so out at sea. 

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived 
that it did not move ; so I presently concluded that it was a 
ship at an anchor ; and being eager, you may be sure, to be 
satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran toward the 
south side of the island, to the rocks where I had formerly 
been carried away with the current, and getting up there, the 
weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly 
see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away in the 
night, upon those concealed rocks which I found, when I 
was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the 
violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, 
or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most 
desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in, in all 
my life. 

Thus, what is one man’s safety, is another man’s destruc- 
tion ; for it seems these men, whoever they were, being out 
of their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water, 
had been driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing 
hard at E. and E. N. E. Had they seen the island, as I 
must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I 
thought, have endeavored to have saved themselves on 
shore, by the help of their boat; but their firing of guns for 
help, especially when they saw, as 1 imagined, my fire, filled 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


X 7S 


me with many thoughts. First, I imagined, upon seeing my 
light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and 
have endeavored to make the shore ; but, that the sea going 
very high, they might have been cast aw r ay ; other times I 
imagined that they might have lost their boat before, as 
might be the case many ways, as particularly, by the break- 
ing of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliges 
men to stave, or take in pieces their boat, and sometimes to 
throw it overboard with their own hands. Other times I 
imagined they had some other ship or ships in company, 
who, upon the signals of distress they had made, had taken 
them up, and carried them off. Other whiles I fancied they 
were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away 
by the current that I had been formerly in, were carried out 
into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery 
and perishing; and that, perhaps, they might by this time 
think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one 
another. 

As all these were but conjectures, at best, so in the condi- 
tion I was in, I could do no more than look on upon the 
misery of the poor men, and pity them, which had still this 
good effect on my side, that it gave me more and more cause 
to give thanks to God who had so happily and comfortably 
provided for me in my desolate condition ; and that, of two 
ships’ companies who were now cast away upon this part of 
the world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned 
here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence 
of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any 
misery so great, but we may see something or other to be 
thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances 
than our own. 

Such, certainly, was the case of these men, of whom I 
could not so much as see room to suppose any of them were 
saved; nothing could make it rational, so much as to wish 
or expect that they did not all perish there, except the pos- 
sibility only of their being taken up by another ship in 
company, and this was but mere possibility indeed; fori 
saw not the least signal or appearance of any such thing. 

I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


1 76 

strange longing or hankering of desires I felt in my soul 
upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus : O that there 
had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul saved out of 
this ship, to have escaped to me, that I might but have had 
one companion, one fellow-creature to have spoken to me, 
and to have conversed with ! In all the time of my solitary 
life, I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the soci- 
ety of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want 
of it. 

There are some secret, moving springs in the affections, 
which when they are set a-going by some object in view, or 
be it some object, though not in view, yet rendered present to 
the mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out 
the soul by its impetuosity to such violent, eager embracings 
of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. 

Such were these earnest wishings, that but one man had 
been saved ! Oh, that it had been but one ! I believe I 
repeated the words, “ Oh, that it had been but one ! ” a thou- 
sand times ; and the desires were so moved by it, that when 
I spoke the words, my hands would clinch together, and my 
fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had any soft 
thing in my hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; 
and my teeth in my head would strike together, and set 
against one another so strong, that for some time I could 
not part them again. 

Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason 
and manner of them ; all I can say to them, is, to describe 
the fact, w r hich was even surprising to me when I found it, 
though I knew not from what it should proceed ; it was 
doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas 
formed in my mind, realizing the comfort which the con- 
versation of one of my fellow-christians would have been 
to me. 

But it was not to be ; either their fate, or mine, or both, 
forbid it; for until the last year of my being on this island, I 
never knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no ; 
and had only the affliction some days after, to see the corpse 
of a drowned boy come on shore, at the end of the island 
which was next the shipwreck. He had on no clothes but 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


177 

a seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers, 
and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much 
as to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his 
pocket but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe ; the last 
was to me of ten times more value than the first. 

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in 
my boat, to this wreck; not doubting but I might find some- 
thing on board, that might be useful to me; but that did not 
altogether press me so much, as the possibility that there 
might be yet some living creature on board, whose life I 
might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort 
my own to the last degree ; and this thought clung so to my 
heart, that I could not be quiet, night nor day, but I must 
venture out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing 
the rest to God’s providence, I thought the impression was 
so strong upon my mind, that it could not be resisted, that 
it must come from some invisible direction, and that I 
should be wanting to myself if I did not go. 

Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to 
my castle, prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity 
of bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, 
a bottle of rum — for I had still a great deal of that left; a 
basket full of raisins. And thus loading myself with every 
thing necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out 
of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and 
then went home again for more. My second cargo was a 
great bag full of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head 
for shade, another large pot full of fresh water, and about 
two dozen of my small loaves, or barley cakes, more than 
before, with a bottle of goat’s milk, and a cheese ; all which, 
with great labor and sweat, I brought to my boat; and 
praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out, and rowing 
or paddling the canoe along the shore, I came at last to the 
utmost point of the island on that side, viz : N. E. And 
now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to 
venture, or not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents 
which ran constantly on both sides of the island, at a 
distance, and which were very terrible to me, from the 
remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


J 7 8 

heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven in 
to either of those currents, I should be carried a vast way 
out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the 
island again, and that then, as my boat was but small, if any 
little gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost. 

These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to 
give over my enterprise, and having hauled my boat into a 
little creek on the shore, I stepped out, and sat me down 
upon a little rising bit of ground, very pensive and anxious, 
between fear and desire about my voyage ; when as I was 
musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the 
flood come on, upon which my going was for so many hours 
impracticable. Upon this presently it occurred to me, that 
I should go up to the highest piece of ground I could find, 
and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide, or currents, 
lay, when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if I 
was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven 
another way home, with the same rapidness of the currents. 
This thought was no sooner in my head, but I cast my 
eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently overlooked the sea 
both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the cur- 
rents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide 
myself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of 
the ebb set out close by the south point of the island, so the 
current of the flood set in close by the shore of the north 
side, and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north 
of the island in my return, and I should do well enough. 

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next 
morning to set out with the first of the tide ; and reposing 
myself for the night in the canoe, under the great watch- 
coat I mentioned, I launched out. I made first a little out 
to sea full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the 
current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great 
rate, and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side current 
had done before, and so as to take from me all government 
of the boat ; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, I 
went at a great rate directly for the wreck, and in less than 
two hours, I came up to it. 

It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which by its 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*79 


building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two 
rocks. All the stern and quarter of her was beaten to 
pieces with the sea ; and as her forecastle, which stuck in 
the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and 
foremast were brought by the board; that is to say, broken 
short off ; but her boltsprit was sound, and the head and 
bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog ap- 
peared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried; 
and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to 
me, and I took him into the boat, but found him almost 
dead for hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, 
and he eat it like a ravenous wolf, that had been starving a 
fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature some 
fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he would 
have burst himself. 

After this, I went on board; but the first sight I met with, 
was two men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the 
ship, with their arms fast about one another. I concluded, 
as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in 
a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, 
that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled 
with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they 
had been under the water. Besides the dog, there was 
nothing left in the ship that had life, nor any goods that I 
could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There were 
some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy, I knew not, 
which lay lower in the hold ; and which, the water being 
ebbed out, I could see; but they were too big to meddle 
with. I saw several chests, which I believed belonged to 
some of the seamen, and I got two of them into the boat, 
without examining what was in them. 

Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart 
broken off, I am pursuaded I might have made a good 
voyage ; for by what I found in these two chests, I had 
room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on 
board ; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she 
must have been bound from the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio 
de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils 
to the Havana, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so, perhaps, to 


i8o 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of 
no use, at that time, to anybody; and what became of the 
rest of her people, I then knew not. 

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, 
of about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat, with 
much difficulty; there were several muskets in a cabin, and 
a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of powder in 
it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion for them, so I left 
them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and 
tongs, which I wanted extremely, as also two little brass 
kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron ; and 
with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning 
to make home again, and the same evening, about an hour 
within night, I reached the island again, weary and fatigued 
to the last degree. 

I reposed that night in the boat, and in the morning I 
resolved to harbor what I had gotten in my new cave, not to 
carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got 
all my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. 
The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such 
as we had at the Brazils, and in a word, not at all good ; but 
when I came to open the chests, I found several things of 
great use to me. For example, I found in one a fine case 
of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial 
waters, fine, and very good ; the bottles held about three 
pints each, and were tipped with silver. I found two pots 
of very good succades, or sweet-meats, so fastened also on 
top, that the salt water had not hurt them ; and two more of 
the same, which the water had spoiled. I found some very 
good shirts, which were very welcome to me, and about a 
dozen and half of linen white handkerchiefs, and colored 
neckcloths ; the former also were very welcome, being 
exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides 
this, when I came to the till in the chest, I found there three 
great bags of pieces of eight, which held out about eleven 
hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a 
paper, six doubloons of gold, and some small bars or wedges 
of gold ; I suppose they might all weigh near a pound. 

The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


181 


little value ; but by the circumstances it must have belonged 
to the gunner’s mate, though there was no powder in it, but 
about two pounds of fine glazed powder in three small flasks, 
kept, I suppose, for charging their fowling-pieces on occa- 
sion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage, that 
was of any use to me ; for as to the money, I had no manner 
of occasion for it ; ’t was to me as the dirt under my feet, 
and I would have given it all for three or four pairs of Eng- 
lish shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted, 
but had not had on my feet now for many years. I had, 
indeed, gotten two pairs of shoes now, which I took off of 
the feet of the two drowned men, who I saw in the wreck; 
and I found two pairs more in one of the chests, which were 
very welcome to me ; but they were not like our English 
shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we call 
pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman’s chest about 
fifty pieces of eight, in royals, but no gold. I suppose this 
belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed to 
belong to some officer. 

Well, however, I lugged this money home to my cave, and 
laid it up, as I had done that before, which I brought from 
our own ship ; but it was great pity, as I said, that the other 
part of this ship had not come to my share, for I am satis- 
fied I might have loaded my canoe several times over with 
money, which if I had ever escaped to England, would have 
lain here safe enough till I might have come again and 
fetched it. 

Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured 
them, I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her 
along the shore, to her old harbor, where I laid her up, and 
made the best of my way to my old habitation, where I 
found everything safe and quiet ; so I began to repose 
myself, live after my old fashion, and take care of my family 
affairs ; and, for a while, I lived easy enough, only that I 
was more vigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, and 
did not go abroad so much ; and if, at any time, I did stir 
with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the 
island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never 
came, and where I could go without so many precautions, 


lS2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and such a load of arms and ammunition, as I always carried 
with me if I went the other way. 

I lived in this condition nearly two years more ; but my 
unlucky head, that was always to let me know it was born to 
make my body miserable, was all these two years filled with 
projects and designs, how, if it were possible, I might get 
away from this island ; for sometimes I was for making 
another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me 
that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my 
voyage ; sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes an- 
other; and I believe verily, if I had had the boat that I went 
from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound any- 
where, I knew not whither. 

I have been in all my circumstances, a memento to those 
who are touched with the general plague of mankind, 
whence, for aught I know, one half of their miseries flow; 
I mean, that of not being satisfied with the station wherein 
God and Nature has placed them ; for not to look back upon 
my primitive condition, and the excellent advice of my 
father, the opposition to which, was, as I may call it, my 
original sin ; my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had 
been the means of my coming into this miserable condition; 
for had that Providence, which so happily had seated me at 
the Brazils, as a planter, blessed me with confined desires, 
and I could have been contented to have gone on gradually, 
I might have been by this time, — I mean, in the time of my 
being in this island, — one of the most considerable planters 
in the Brazils ; nay, I am persuaded, that by the improvements 
I had made in that little time I lived there, and the increase 
I should probably have made, if I had stayed, I might have 
been worth an hundred thousand moidores ; and what busi- 
ness had I to leave a settled fortune, a well-stocked planta- 
tion, improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to 
Guinea, to fetch negroes, when patience and time would 
have so increased our stock at home, that we could have 
bought them at our own door, from those whose business it 
was to fetch them ; and though it cost us something more, 
yet the difference of that price was by no means worth 
saving at so great a hazard. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


183 

But, as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, so reflec- 
tion upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more 
years, or of the dear-bought experience of time; and so it 
was with me now; and yet so deep had the mistake taken 
root in my temper, that I could not satisfy myself in my 
station, but was continually poring upon the means and pos- 
sibility of my escape from this place ; and that I may, with 
the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining 
part of my story, it may not be improper to give some 
account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish 
scheme for my escape ; and how, and upon what foundation 
I acted. 

I am now supposed to be retired into my castle, after my 
late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up, and secured 
under water, as usual, and my condition restored to what it 
was before. I had more wealth, indeed, than I had before, 
but was not at all the richer; for I had no more use for it, 
than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came 
there. 

It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the 
four-and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island 
of solitariness. I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake, 
very well in health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness 
of body ; no, nor any uneasiness of mind, more than ordinary; 
but could by no means close my eyes ; that is, so as to 
sleep ; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise that as follows. 

It is as impossible as needless, to set down the innumera- 
ble crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great 
thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night’s time. 
I ran over the whole history of my life in miniature, or 
by abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this 
island; and also of the part of my life since I came to 
this island. In my reflections upon the state of my case, 
since I came on shore on this island, I was comparing the 
happy posture of my affairs, in the first years of my habita- 
tion here, compared to the life of anxiety, fear and care, 
which I had lived ever since I had seen the print of a 
foot in the sand ; not that I did not believe the savages 
had frequented the island even all the while, and might 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


184 

have been several hundreds of them at times on shore 
there ; but I had never known it, and was incapable of any 
apprehensions about it ; my satisfaction was perfect, though 
my danger was the same ; and I was as happy in not know- 
ing my danger, as if I had never really been exposed to it. 
This furnished my thoughts with many very profitable reflec- 
tions, and particularly this one, how infinitely good that 
Providence is, which has provided in its government of man- 
kind such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of 
things ; and though he walks in the midst of so many thou- 
sand dangers, the sight of which, if discovered to him, 
would distract his mind, and sink his spirits, he is kept 
serene and calm, by having the events of things hid from his 
eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround 
him. 

After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, 

I came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been 
in for so many years, in this very island, and how I had 
walked about in the greatest security and with all possible 
tranquility; even when perhaps nothing but a brow of a 
hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been 
between me and the worst kind of destruction, viz : that of 
falling into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would 
have seized on me with the same view as I did of a goat or 
a turtle, and have thought it no more a crime to kill and 
devour me, than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would 
unjustly slander myself, if I should say I was not sincerely 
thankful to my great Preserver, to whose singular protection 
I acknowledged, with great humility, that all these unknown 
deliverances were due ; and without which I must inevitably 
have fallen into their merciless hands. 

When these thoughts were over, my head was for some 
time taken up in considering the nature of these wretched 
creatures, I mean the savages ; and how it came to pass in 
the world, that the wise Governor of all things should give up 
any of his creatures to such inhumanity ; nay, to something 
so much below even brutality itself, as to devour its own 
kind ; but, as this ended in some (at that time fruitless) 
speculations, it occurred to me to inquire what part of the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


185 

world these wretches lived in ; how far off the coast 
was from whence they came ; what they ventured over 
so far from home for; what kind of boats they had; 
and why I might not order myself and my business, so that 
I might be as able to go over thither as they were to come 
to me. 

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I 
should do with myself when I came thither; what would 
become of me, if I fell into the hands of the savages ; or 
how I should escape from them, if they attempted me ; no, 
nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the 
coast, and not be attempted by some one or other of them, 
without any possibility of delivering myself; and, if I should 
not fall into their hands, what I should do for provision, or 
whither I should bend my course. None of these thoughts, 
I say, so much as came in my way ; but my mind was wholly 
bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the 
main-land. I looked back upon my present condition as the 
most miserable that could possibly be ; that I was not able 
to throw myself into anything but death that could be called 
worse; that, if I reached the shore of the main, I might, per- 
haps, meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I did on 
the shore of Africa, till I came to some inhabited country, 
and where I might find some relief. And, after all, perhaps 
I might fall in with some Christian ship that might take me 
in; and if the worst came to the worst, I could but die, 
which would put an end to all these miseries at once. Pray, 
note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient 
temper, made, as it were, desperate by the long continuance 
of my troubles, and the disappointments I had met in the 
wreck I had been on board of, and where I had been so near 
obtaining what I so earnestly longed for, viz: somebody 
to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from, of the place 
where I was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. 
I say, I was agitated wholly by thes-e thoughts. All my calm 
of mind in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the 
issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; 
and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any 
thing but to the project of a voyage to the main, which came 


i86 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, 
that it was not to be resisted. 

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or 
more, with such violence that it set my very blood into a 
ferment, and my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a 
fever, merely with the extraordinary fervor of my mind about 
it ; nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the 
very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would 
have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor 
of any thing relating to it ; but I dreamed that, as I was 
going out in the morning as usual from my castle, I saw 
upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to 
land, and that they brought with them another savage who 
they were going to kill in order to eat him ; when, on a sud- 
den, the savage that they were going to kill jumped away 
and ran for his life ; and I thought in my sleep that he came 
running into my little thick grove, before my fortification, to 
hide himself; and that I, seeing him alone, and not perceiv- 
ing that the other sought him that way, showed myself to 
him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him; that he kneeled 
down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him ; upon which 
I showed my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into 
my cave, and he became my servant ; and that, as soon as I 
had gotten this man, I said to myself, now I may certainly 
venture to the main-land ; for this fellow will serve me as a 
pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for pro- 
visions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured, 
what places to venture into, and what to escape. I waked 
with this thought, and was under such inexpressible impres- 
sions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that 
the disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself, 
and finding it was no more than a dream, were equally ex- 
travagant the other way, and threw me into a very great 
dejection of spirit. 

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that my only 
way to go about an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to 
get a savage into my possession ; and, if possible, it should 
be one of their prisoners, who they had condemned to be 
eaten, and should bring thither to kill ; but these thoughts 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


187 

still were attended with this difficulty, that it was impossible 
to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them 
and killing them all ; and this was not only a very desperate 
attempt, and might miscarry ; but, on the other hand, I had 
greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me; and my heart 
trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much blood, though 
it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the arguments 
which occurred to me against this, they being the same men- 
tioned before. But, though I had other reasons to offer 
now, viz : that those men were enemies to my life, and 
would devour me, if they could ; that it was self-preserva- 
tion in the highest degree to deliver myself from this death 
of a life, and was acting in my own defense as much as if 
they were actually assaulting me, and the like, — I say, 
though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shed- 
ding human blood for my deliverance, were very terrible to 
me, and such as I could by no means reconcile myself for a 
great while. 

However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself, 
and after great perplexities about it, — for all these arguments 
one way and another struggled in my head a long time, — the 
eager, prevailing desire of deliverance at last mastered all 
the rest, and I resolved, if possible, to get one of those 
savages into my hands, cost what it would. My next thing, 
then, was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed, was very 
difficult to resolve on. But, as I could pitch upon no proba- 
ble means for it, so I resolved to put myself upon the watch, 
to see them when they came on shore, and leave the rest to 
the event, taking such measures as the opportunity should 
present, let be what would be. 

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon 
the scout, as often as possible, and indeed, so often, that I 
was heartily tired of it ; for it was above a year and half 
that I waited, and for great part of that time went out to the 
west end, and to the south-west corner of the island, almost 
every day, to see for canoes, but none appeared. This was 
very discouraging, and began to trouble me much ; though 
I cannot say that it did in this case, as it had done some 
time before that, viz : wear off the edge of my desire for the 


iS8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


thing. But the longer it seemed to be delayed, the more 
eager I was for it; in a word, I was not at first so careful 
to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by 
them, as I was now eager to be upon them. 

Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two or 
three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely 
slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to 
prevent their being able, at any time, to do me any hurt. It 
was a great while that I pleased myself with this affair, but 
nothing still presented ; all my fancies and schemes came 
to nothing, for no savages came near me for a great while. 

About a year and half after I had entertained these 
notions, and, by long musing, had, as it were, resolved them 
all into nothing, for want of an occasion to put them in 
execution, I was surprised one morning early, with seeing 
no less than five canoes, all on shore together on my side 
the island ; and the people who belonged to them all landed, 
and out of my sight. The number of them broke all my 
measures ; for, seeing so many, and knowing that they 
always came four or six, or sometimes more, in a boat, I 
could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my meas- 
ures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay 
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I 
put myself into all the same postures for an attack that I 
had formerly provided, and was just ready for action, if any- 
thing had presented. Having waited a good while, listening 
to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impa- 
tient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered 
up to the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing 
so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so 
that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I 
observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they 
were no less than thirty in number, that they had a fire 
kindled, that they had meat dressed. How they had cooked 
it, that I knew not, or what it was ; but they were all 
dancing in I know not how many barbarous gestures and 
figures, their own way, round the fire. 

While I was thus looking on them, I perceived by my 
perspective, two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


189 

where, it seems, they were laid by, and were now brought 
out for the slaughter. I perceived one of them immediately 
fell, being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or wooden 
sword, for that was their way; and two or three others were 
at work immediately cutting him open for their cookery, 
while the other victim was left standing by himself, till they 
should be ready for him. In that very moment, this poor 
wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty, nature inspired him 
with hopes of life, and he started away from them, and ran 
with incredible swiftness along the sands directly towards 
me, I mean towards that part of the coast where my habita- 
tion was., 

I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknowledge) when 
I perceived him to run my way ; and especially, when, as I 
thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body ; and now I 
expected that part of my dream was coming to pass, and 
that he would certainly take shelter in my grove ; but I could 
not depend by any means upon my dream for the rest of it, 
viz : that the other savages would not pursue him thither, 
and find him there. However, I kept my station, and my 
spirits began to recover, when I found that there was not 
above three men that followed him; and still more was I en- 
couraged, when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly 
in running, and gained ground of them ; so that if he could 
but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly 
get away from them all. 

There was between them and my castle the creek which I 
mentioned often at the first part of my story, when I landed 
my cargoes out of the ship ; and this, I saw plainly, he must 
necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch would be taken 
there. But when the savage escaping came thither, he made 
nothing of it, though the tide was then up ; but plunging in, 
swam through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed, 
and ran on with exceeding strength and swiftness. When the 
three persons came to the creek, I found that two of them 
could swim, but the third could not, and that standing on 
the other side, he looked at the others, but went no further; 
and soon after went softly back, which, as it happened, was 
very well for him in the main. 


190 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I observed that the two who swam were yet more than 
twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was 
that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my 
thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to 
get me a servant, and perhaps a companion, or assistant; 
and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor 
creature’s life. I immediately run down the ladders with all 
possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both 
but at the foot of the ladders, as I observed above ; and 
getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill, 
I crossed toward the sea ; and having a very short cut, and 
all down hill, clapped myself in the way, between the pur- 
suers and the pursued; hallooing aloud to him that fled, 
who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at 
me, as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to 
come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced towards 
the two that followed ; then, rushing at once upon the 
foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece ; 
I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; 
though at that distance it would not have been easily heard, 
and being out of sight of the smoke too, they would not have 
easily known what to make of it. Having knocked this 
fellow down, the other who pursued with him stopped, as if 
he had been frighted, and I advanced a pace towards him ; 
but as I came nearer, I perceived, presently, he had a bow 
and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me ; so I was then 
necessitated to shoot at him first, which I did and killed him 
at the first shot; the poor savage who fled, but had stopped, 
though he saw both his enemies fallen, and killed, as he 
thought, yet was so frighted with the fire and noise of my 
piece, that he stood stock still, and neither came forward or 
went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still, 
than to come on ; I hallooed again to him, and made signs 
to come forward, which he* easily understood, and came a 
little way ; then stopped again, and then a little further, and 
stopped again ; and I could then perceive that he stood 
trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just 
been to be killed, as his two enemies were ; I beckoned him 
again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encourage- 







WWtffiM, 

wmwfWH 


DRAWN BY T. ST0THAR3, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE FIRST SEES AND RESCUES HIS MAN FRIDAY 














































































































p 































* 4 / 1 .* 




' 




















































■ m 







































ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I 9 I 

ment that I could think of ; and he came nearer and nearer, 
kneeling down every ten or twelve steps in token of acknowl- 
edgment for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked 
pleasantly and beckoned to him to come still nearer; at 
length he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, 
kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and, 
taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head ; this it 
seems was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever. I 
took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him 
all I could. But there was more work to do yet, for I 
perceived the savage, whom I knocked down, was not killed, 
but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I 
pointed to him, and showing him the savage, that he was not 
dead ; upon this, he spoke some words to me, and, though I 
could not understand tl^em, yet I thought they were pleasant 
to hear, for they were the first sound of a man’s voice that I 
had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. 
But there was no time for such reflections now; the savage 
who was knocked down recovered himself so far, as to sit 
up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage began 
to be afraid ; but when I saw that, I presented my other 
piece at the man, as if I would shoot him ; upon this, my 
savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to lend 
him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side ; so I 
did. He no sooner had it, but he ran to his enemy, and at 
one blow cut off his head as cleverly, no executioner in 
Germany could have done it sooner or better, which I 
thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, 
never saw a sword in his life before, except their own 
wooden swords ; however, it seems, as I learned afterwards, 
they make their wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the 
wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads even with them, 
aye, and arms* and that at one blow too. When he had done 
this, he came laughing to me in sign of triumph, and 
brought me the sword again, and with abundance of gestures 
which I did not understand, laid it down with the head of 
the savage, that he had killed just before me. 

But that which astonished him most, was to know how I 
had killed the other Indian so far off ; so, pointing to him, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


192 

he made signs to me to let him go to him, so I bade him go 
as well as I could. When he came to him, he stood like 
one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on one side, 
then on the other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, 
which it seems was just in his breast, where it had made a 
hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed, but he 
had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his 
bow and arrows, and came back ; so I turned to go away, 
and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to him that 
more might come after them. 

Upon this, he signed to me, that he should bury them with 
sand, that they might not be seen by the rest if they fol- 
lowed, and so I made signs again to him to do so ; he fell to 
work, and in an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand 
with his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then 
dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by the 
other, — I believe he had buried them both in a quarter cf an 
hour; then calling him away, I carried him not to my castle, 
but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the island; 
so I did not let my dream come to pass in that part, viz : 
that he came into my grove for shelter. 

Here I gave him bread, and a bunch of raisins to cat, and 
a draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great 
distress for, by his running; and, having refreshed him, I 
made signs for him to go lie down and sleep, pointing to a 
place where I had laid a great parcel of rice straw, and a 
blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself some- 
time ; so the poor creature laid down and went to sleep. 

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, 
with straight, strong limbs, not too large ; tall and well- 
shaped, and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years cf age. 
He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly 
aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his 
face, and yet he had all the sweetness and softness cf an 
European in his countenance too, especially when he smiled. 
His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his fore- 
head very high and large, and a great vivacity and sparkling 
sharpness in his eyes. The color cf his skin was not quite 
black, but very tawny, and yet not of an ugly, yellow, nau- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


*93 

seous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other na- 
tives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive color, 
that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy 
to describe. His face was round and plump ; his nose small, 
not flat like the negroes, a very good mouth, thin lips, and 
his fine teeth well set, and white as ivory. After he had 
slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he waked 
again, and came out of the cave to me, for I had been milk- 
ing my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by. When 
he espied me, he came running to me, laying himself down 
again upon the ground, with all the possible signs of an 
humble, thankful disposition, making many antic gestures 
to show it. At last he laid his head flat upon the ground, 
close to my foot, and set my other foot upon his head, as 
he had done before ; and after this, made all the signs to 
me of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to 
let me know how he would serve me as long as he lived. I 
understood him in many things, and let him know I was very 
well pleased with him ; in a little time I began to speak to 
him, and teach him to speak to me; and, first, I made him 
know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved 
his life — I called him so for the memory of the time. I like- 
wise taught him to say master, and then let him know that 
was to be my name ; I likewise taught him to say yes and 
no, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some 
milk, in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before 
him, and sop my bread in it; and I gave him a cake of 
bread, to do the like, which he quickly complied with, and 
made signs that it was very good for him. 

I kept there with him all that night ; but as soon as it was 
day, I beckoned to him to come with me and let him know I 
would give him some clothes, at which he seemed very glad, 
for he was stark naked. As we went by the place where he 
had buried the two men, he pointed exactly to the place and 
showed me the marks that he had made to find them again, 
making signs to me that we should dig them up again, and 
eat them; at this I appeared very angry, expressed my ab- 
horrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of 
it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away, which 


1 94 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


he did immediately, with great submission. I then led him 
up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; 
and, pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly the place 
where they had been, but no appearance of them or of their 
canoes ; so that it was plain that they were gone, and had 
left their two comrades behind them, without any search 
after them. 

But I was not content with this discovery; but, having 
now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I took 
my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, 
with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he could 
use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and 
I two for myself, and away we marched to the place where 
these creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some 
fuller intelligence of them. When I came to the place, my 
very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within 
me at the Jiorror of the spectacle. Indeed, it was a dread- 
ful sight, at least it was so to me ; though Friday made noth- 
ing of it. The place was covered with human bones, the 
ground dyed with their blood, great pieces of flesh left here 
and there, and half eaten, mangled and scorched ; and in short 
all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making 
there, after a victory over their enemies. I saw three skulls, 
five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and 
abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his 
signs, made me understand that they brought over four 
prisoners to feast upon ; that three of them were eaten up, 
and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth ; that there 
had been a great battle between them and their next king, 
whose subjects it seems he had been one of, and that they 
had taken a great number of prisoners, all which were car- 
ried to several places by those that had taken them in the 
fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these 
wretches upon those they brought hither. 

I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and 
whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and 
make a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I 
found Friday had still a hankering stomach after some of 
the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature ; but I dis- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


x 95 


covered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and 
at the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it; 
for I had by some means let him know that I would kill 
him if he offered it. 

When we had done this, we came back to our castle, and 
there I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all I 
gave him a pair of linen drawers which I had out of the poor 
gunner’s chest I mentioned, and which I found in the wreck, 
and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very well; then 
I made him a jerkin of goat’s-skin, as well as my skill would 
allow; and I was now grown a tolerable good tailor; and I 
gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very 
convenient, and fashionable enough ; and thus he was 
clothed for the present tolerably well; and was mighty well 
pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. 
It is true, he went awkwardly in these things at first; wearing 
the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the 
waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of ' his arms; 
but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, 
and using himself to them, at length he took to them very 
well. 

The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, 
I began to consider where I should lodge him; and that I 
might do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I 
made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my 
two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and in the outside 
of the first. And as there was a door or entrance there into 
my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it 
of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the 
entrance; and, causing the door to open on the inside, I 
barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders too; so that 
Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my inner- 
most wall, without making so much noise in getting over 
that it must needs waken me, for my first wall had now a 
complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and 
leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again laid across 
with smaller sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over 
a great thickness with the rice straw, which was strong like 
reeds ; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


196 

out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, 'if 
it had seen attempted on the outside, would not have opened 
at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great noise ; 
and as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night. 

But I needed none of all this precaution ; for never man 
had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was 
to me ; without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly 
obliged and engaged ; his very affections were tied to me, 
like those of a child to a father ; and I dare say he would 
have sacrificed his life for the saving of mine, upon any occa- 
sion whatsoever ; the many testimonies he gave me of this, 
put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed 
to use no precautions as to my safety on his account. 

This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that 
with wonder, that, however it had pleased God, in his 
Providence, and in the government of the works of his hands, 
to take from so great a part of the world of his creatures, the 
best use to which their faculties and the powers of their 
souls are adapted ; yet that he has bestowed upon them the 
same powers, the same reason, the same affections, the same 
sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same passions 
and resentment of wrongs, the same sense of gratitude, 
sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good and 
receiving good that he has given to us ; and that when he 
pleases to offer to them occasions of exerting these, they 
are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right 
uses for which they were bestowed, than we are. And this 
made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the 
several occasions presented, how mean a use we make cf all 
these, even though we have these powers enlightened by 
the great lamp of instruction, the spirit of God, and by the 
knowledge of his word, added to our understanding; and 
why it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge 
from so many millions of souls, who, if I might judge by 
this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than 
we did. 

From hence I sometimes was led too far to invade the 
sovereignty of Providence, and, as it were, arraign the jus- 
tice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


197 


that light from some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect 
a like duty from both. But I shut it up, and checked my 
thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did not know by 
what light and law these should be condemned ; but that as 
God was necessarily, and by the nature of his being, infi- 
nitely holy and just, so it could not be; but that if these 
creatures were all sentenced to absence from himself, it was 
on account of sinning against that light, which, as the Scrip- 
ture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rules as 
their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the 
foundation was not discovered to us. And, second, that still 
as we are all like clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel 
could say to him, why hast thou formed me thus ? 

But to return to my new companion, I was greatly de- 
lighted with him, and made it my business to teach him 
everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and 
helpful : but especially to make him speak, and understand 
me when I spoke ; and he was the aptest scholar that ever 
was, and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, 
and so pleased when fie could but understand me, or 
make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to me to 
talk to him ; and now my life began to be so easy, that I 
began to say to myself that, could I but have been safe 
from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove 
from the place while I lived. 

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, 
I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid 
way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, 
I ought to let him taste other flesh ; so I took him out with 
me one morning to the woods. I went indeed intending to 
kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring him home and 
dress it : but as I was going I saw a she-goat lying down 
in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her ; I caught 
hold of Friday, “Hold,” said I, “stand still;” and made 
signs to him not to stir; immediately 1 presented my piece, 
shot and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who at 
a distance indeed had seen me kill the savage his enemy, but 
did not know, or could not imagine how it was done, was sen- 
sibly surprised, trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


198 

that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see 
the kid I had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped 
up his waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded, and, as I 
found, presently thought I was resolved to kill him ; for he 
came and kneeled down to me, and, embracing my knees, 
said a great many things I did not understand, but I could 
easily see that the meaning was to pray me not to kill him. 

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him 
no harm ; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him 
and, pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him 
to run and fetch it, which he did ; and while he was wonder- 
ing and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded 
my gun again, and by-and-by I saw a great fowl like a hawk 
sit upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a 
little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointing at 
the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had 
been a hawk; I said, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, 
and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see I would 
make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and 
kill that bird; accordingly I fired, and bade him look, and 
immediately he saw the parrot fall; he stood like one 
frighted again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I 
found he was the more amazed because he did not see me 
put anything into the gun; but thought that there must be 
some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, 
able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything, near or far off ; and 
the astonishment this created in him was such as could not 
wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have let 
him, he would have worshipped me and my gun; as for the 
gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days 
after, but would speak to it, and talk to it as if it had an- 
swered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards 
learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him. 

Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I 
pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which 
he did, but stayed some time ; for the parrot not being quite 
dead, was fluttered a good way off from the place where she 
fell. However, he found her, took her up, and brought her 
to me ; and, as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


199 


before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and 
not let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other 
mark that might present; but nothing more offered at that 
time ; so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I 
took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and 
having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of 
the flesh, and made some very good broth ; and after I had 
begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed 
very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was 
strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a 
sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, and putting a 
little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and 
would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh 
water after it. On the other hand, I took some meat in my 
mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for 
want of salt as fast as he had done at the salt; but it would 
not do, he would never care for salt with his meat, or in his 
broth ; at least, not for a great while, and then but a very 
little. 

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was 
resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of 
the kid. This I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, 
as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles 
up, one on each side of the fire, and one cross on the top, 
and tying the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn 
continually. This Friday admired very much ; but when he 
came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me 
how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him; 
and at last he told me he would never eat man’s flesh any 
more, which I was very glad to hear. 

The next day I set him to work to beating some corn out, 
and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed be- 
fore ; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, 
especially, after he had seen what the meaning of it was, 
and that it was to make bread of; for after that I let him see 
me make my bread, and bake it too, and in a little time, 
Friday was able to do all the work for me, as well as I could 
do it myself. 

I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed 


200 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, 
and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do. So 
I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the fence 
in the same manner as before, in which Friday not only 
worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheer- 
fully; and I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to 
make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I 
might have enough for him and myself too. He appeared 
very sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought 
I had much more labor upon me on his account than I had 
for myself ; and that he would work the harder for me, if I 
would tell him what to do. 

This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this 
place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the 
names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and 
of every place I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to 
me; so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my 
tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little occasion for 
before, — that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure 
of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow 
himself; his simple, unfeigned honestyappeared to me more 
and more every day, and I began really to love the creature; 
and on his side, I believe he loved me more than it was 
possible for him ever to love anything before. 

I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclina- 
tion to his own country again; and having learned him 
English so well that he could answer me almost any ques- 
tion, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to 
never conquered in battle. At which he smiled and said : 
“Yes, yes; w r e always fight the better.” That is, he meant 
we always get the better in fight. And so we began the 
following discourse: “You always fight the better;” said I; 
“how came you to be taken prisoner, then, Friday?” 

Friday: “My nation beat much, for all that.” 

Master: “How beat? If your nation beat them, how 
come you to be taken ? ” 

Friday: “They more many than my nation in the 
place where me was; they take one, two, three, and 
me. My nation over beat them in the yonder place, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 201 

where me no was. There my nation take one, two, great 
thousand.” 

Master: “But why did not your side recover you from the 
hands of your enemies, then?” 

Friday: “They run, one, two, three, and me, and make go 
in the canoe. My nation have no canoe that time.” 

Master: “Well, Friday, and what does your nation do 
with the men they take? Do they carry them away, and eat 
them, as these did?” 

Friday: “Yes; my nation eat mans, too, — eat all up.” 

Master: “Where do they carry them?” 

Friday: “Go to other place where they think.” 

Master: “ Do they come hither?” 

Friday: “Yes, yes; they come hither, — come other else 
place.” 

Master: “ Have you been here with them?” 

Friday: “Yes, I been here.” [Points to the N. W. side 
of the island, which it seems was their side.] 

By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly 
been among the savages who used to come on shore on the 
farther part of the island, on the same man-eating occasions 
that he was now brought for; and some time after, when I 
took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same I 
formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told 
me he was there once when they eat up twenty men, two 
women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in English, 
but he numbered them by laying so many stones on a row, 
and pointing to me to tell them over. 

I have told this passage because it introduces what fol- 
lows; that after I had had this discourse with him, I asked 
him how far it was from our island to the shore, and whether 
the canoes were not often lost. He told me there was no 
danger, no canoes ever lost; but that after a little way out 
to the sea there was a current, and a wind, always one way 
in the morning, the other in the afternoon. 

This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, 
— as going out, or coming in; but I afterwards understood 
it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty 
river Orinoco, in the mouth or the gulf of which river, as I 


202 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


found afterwards, our island lay. And this land which I 
perceived to the W. and N. W., was the great island Trin- 
idad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked 
Friday a thousand questions about the country, the inhabi- 
tants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near. He 
told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. 
I asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of 
people, but could get no other name than Caribs; from 
whence I easily understood that these were the Caribbees, 
which our maps place on that part of America which reaches 
from the mouth of the river Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards 
to St. Martha. He told me that, up a great way beyond the 
moon, — that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which 
must be W. from their country, there dwelt white-bearded 
men, like me (and pointed to my great whiskers, which I 
mentioned before), and that they had killed much mans (that 
was his word). By all which, I understood he meant the 
Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over 
the whole countries, and was remembered by all the nations, 
from father to son. 

I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from this 
island and get among those white men. He told me: “Yes, 
yes; I might go in two canoe.” I could not understand what 
he meant, or make him describe to me what he meant by “ two 
canoe,” till, at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant it 
must be in a large, great boat, as big as two canoes. 

This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish with me 
very well; and from this time I entertained some hopes that, 
one time or other, I might find an opportunity to make my 
escape from this place, and that this poor savage might be a 
means to help me to do it. 

During the long time that Friday has now been with me, 
and that he began to speak to me and understand me, I was 
not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his 
mind; particularly, I asked him one time who made him. 
The poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought 
I had asked who was his father. But I took it by another 
handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we 
walked on, and the hills and woods. He told me it was one 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


203 


old Benamuckee, that lived beyond all. He could describe 
nothing of this great person but that he was very old, — 
much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon 
or the stars. I asked him then, If this old person had made 
all things, why did not all things worship him? He looked 
very grave, and, with a perfect look of innocence, said, “All 
things do say ‘O’ to him.” I asked him if the people who 
die, in his country, went away anywhere. He said, “Yes; 
they all went to Benamuckee.” Then I asked him, 
“Whether these they eat up went thither too?” He said, 
“Yes.” 

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowl- 
edge of the true God. I told him that the great Maker of 
all things lived up there, — pointing up towards heaven; that 
He governed the world by the same power and providence by 
which He had made it; that He was omnipotent, could do 
everything for us, give everything to us, take everything 
from us. And thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He 
listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the 
notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the 
manner of making our prayers to God, and his being able 
to hear us, even into heaven. He told me, one day, that if 
our God could' hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs 
be a greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived but a 
little way off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the 
great mountains, where he dwelt, to speak to him. I asked 
him if ever he went thither to speak to him. He said, “No; 
they never went that were young men.” None went thither 
but the old men, who he called their Oowokakee, — that is, 
as I made him explain it to me, their religious or clergy, and 
that they went to say “ O” (so he called saying prayers), and 
then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By 
this, I observed that there is priestcraft, even amongst the 
most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy 
of making a secret religion, in order to preserve the venera- 
tion of the people to the clergy, is not only to be found in 
the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, 
even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. 

I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday, 


204 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and told him, that the pretence of their old men going up to 
the mountains to say “ O ” to their god Benamuckee, was a 
cheat, and their bringing word from thence what he said, 
was much more so ; that if they met with any answer, or 
spoke with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit. 
And then I entered into a long discourse with him about 
the devil, the original of him, his rebellion against God, his 
enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the 
dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, 
and as God; and the many stratagems he made use of to 
delude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access 
to our passions, and to our affections, to adapt his snares so 
to our inclinations, as to cause us even to be our own 
tempters, and to run upon our destruction by our own 
choice. 

I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his 
mind about the devil, as it was about the being of a God. 
Nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even 
the necessity of a great first cause and overruling, governing 
power, a secret, directing Providence, and of the equity and 
justice of paying homage to him that made us and the like. 
But there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil 
spirit, of his original, his being, his nature, and above all, of 
his inclination to do evil and to draw us in to do so too; 
and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by 
a question merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew 
what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him 
of the power of God, his omnipotence, his dreadful aversion 
to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; 
how, as he had made us all, he could destroy us, and all the 
world in a moment; and he listened with great seriousness 
to me all the while. 

After this, I had been telling him how the devil was 
God’s enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice 
and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to 
ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. 
“Well,” said Friday, “but you say, God is so strong, so 
great, is he not much strong, much might as the devil ? ” 
“Yes, yes,” said I, “ Friday, God is stronger than the devil, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


205 


God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to 
tread him down under our feet, and enable us to resist his 
temptations, and quench his fiery darts.” “ But,” says he 
again, “ if God much strong, much might as the devil, why 
God no kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked ? ” 

I was strangely surprised at his question ; and after all, 
though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, 
and ill enough qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficul- 
ties ; and, at first, I could not tell what to say, so I pretended 
not to hear him, and asked him what he said. But he was too 
earnest for an answer to forget his question ; so that he 
repeated it in the very same broken words, as above. By 
this time, I had recovered myself a little, and I said, “ God 
will at last punish him severely. He is reserved for the 
Judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to dwell 
with everlasting fire.” This did not satisfy Friday, but he 
returns upon me, repeating my words, “ Reserve, at last, me 
no understand; but why not kill the devil now, not kill 
great ago?” “You may as well ask me,” said I, “why 
God does not kill you and I, when we do wicked things here 
that offend him ? We are preserved to repent and be par- 
doned.” He mused awhile at this. “ Well, well,” says he, 
mighty affectionately, “that well; so you, I, devil, all 
wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all.” Here I was, 
run down again by him to the last degree ; and it was a testi- 
mony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they 
will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, 
and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of 
God, as the consequence of our nature ; yet nothing but 
divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 
and of a redemption purchased for us, of a mediator of the 
new covenant, and of an intercessor, at the footstool of 
God’s throne. I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven 
can form these in the soul ; and that, therefore, the Gospel 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean, the word of 
God and the spirit of God, promised for the guide and 
sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessary in- 
structors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of 
God, and the means of salvation. 


206 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I therefore diverted the present discourse oetween me 
and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occa- 
sion of going out ; then, sending him for something a good 
way off, I seriously prayed to God that he would enable me 
to instruct savingly this poor savage, assisting by his spirit 
the heart of the poor ignorant creature, to receive the light 
of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to him- 
self, and would guide me to speak so to him from the Word 
of God, as his conscience might be convinced, his eyes 
opened, and his soul saved. When he came again to me, I 
entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of 
the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and 
of the doctrine of the Gospel preached from Heaven, viz : of 
repentance towards God, and faith in our blessed Lord 
Jesus. I then explained to him, as well as I could, why our 
blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels, but 
the seed of Abraham, and how for that reason the fallen 
angels had no share in the redemption ; that he came only 
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the like. 

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all 
the methods I took for this poor creature’s instruction, and 
must acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon the same 
principle will find, that in laying things open to him, I really 
informed and instructed myself in many things, that either I 
did not know, or had not fully considered before, but which 
occurred naturally to my mind, upon my searching into them, 
for the information of this poor savage; and I had more 
affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion, than 
ever I felt before ; so that whether this poor wild wretch 
was the better for me, or no, I had great reason to be thank- 
ful that ever he came to me. My grief set lighter upon me, 
my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure, and 
when I reflected that in this solitary life which I had been 
confined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to 
Heaven, and to seek the hand that had brought me there, 
but was now to be made an instrument under Providence to 
save the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor sav- 
age, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of 
the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


207 


know whom is life eternal ; I say, when I reflected upon all 
these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, 
and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this 
place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all 
afflictions that could possibly have befallen me. 

In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of 
my time, and the conversation which employed the hours 
between Friday and I was such as made the three years 
which we lived there together, perfectly and completely 
happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be 
formed in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good 
Christian, a much better than I ; though I have reason to 
hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, 
and comforted, restored penitents. We had here the Word 
of God to read, and no farther off from his Spirit to instruct, 
than if we had been in England. 

I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, to let 
him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I read; 
and he again, by his serious enquiries and questions, made 
me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture 
knowledge, than I should ever have been by my own private 
mere reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from observ- 
ing here also from experience in this retired part of my life, 
viz: how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is, that the 
knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by 
Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so 
easv to be received and understood, that as the bare read- 
ing of the Scripture made me capable of understanding 
enough of my duty, to carry me directly on to the great 
work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a 
Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in 
practice, and obedience to all God’s commands, and this 
without any teacher or instructor (I mean, human), so the 
same plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening 
this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, 
as I have known few equal to him in my life. 

As to all the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contentions, 
which have happened in the world about religion, whether 
niceties in doctrines, or schemes of church government, they 


2oS 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


were all perfectly useless to us, as for aught I can yet see, 
they have been to all the rest in the world ; we had the sure 
guide to heaven, viz: the Word of God; and we had, 
blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God, 
teaching and instructing us by his word, leading us into all 
truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the in- 
struction of his word ; and I cannot see the least use that 
the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion, 
which have made such confusions in the world, would have 
been to us, if we could have obtained it : but I must go on 
with the historical part of. things, and take every part in its 
order. 

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, 
and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and 
speak fluently, though in broken English, to me, I ac- 
quainted him with my own story, or at least so much of it as 
related to my coming into the place, how I had lived there, 
and how long. I let him into the mystery, for such it was 
to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to 
shoot; I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully de- 
lighted with, and I made him a belt, with a frog hanging to 
it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in the 
frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was 
not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more 
useful upon other occasions. 

I described to him the country of Europe, and particularly 
England, which I came from; how we lived, how we wor- 
shipped God, how we behaved to one another ; and how we 
traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gave him an ac- 
count of the wreck which I had been on board of, and 
showed him as near as I could, the place where she lay ; but 
she was all beaten in pieces before, and gone. 

I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when 
we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole 
strength then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon 
seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and 
said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied upon; at 
last said he, “ me see such boat like come to place at my 
nation ! ” 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


209 


I did not understand him a good while; but, at last, when 
I had examined farther into it, I understood by him, that a 
boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the country 
where he lived ; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither 
by stress of weather. I presently imagined, that some 
European ship must have been cast away upon their coast, 
and the boat might get loose, and drive ashore ; but was so 
dull, that I never once thought of men making escape from 
a wreck thither, much less whence they might come ; so I 
only enquired after a description of the boat. 

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought 
me better to understand him, when he added with some 
warmth, “we save the white man from drown.” Then I 
presently asked him, if there was any white mans, as he 
called them, in the boat, “ Yes,” he said, “ the boat full of 
white mans.” I asked him how many; he told upon his 
fingers seventeen. I asked him then, what became of them; 
he told me, “ they live, they dwell at my nation.” 

This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently 
imagined that these might be the men belonging to the 
ship that was cast away in sight of my island, as I now call 
it ; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, and they 
saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, 
and were landed upon that wild shore, among the savages. 

Upon this, I enquired of him more critically what was 
become of them. He assured me they lived still there; that 
they had been there about four years ; that the savages let 
them alone, and gave them victuals to live. I asked him, 
how it came to pass they did not kill them and eat them. 
He said, “no, they make brother with them;” that is, as I 
understood him, a truce. And then he added, “ they no eat 
mans, but when make the war fight ; ” that is to say, they 
never eat any men, but such as come to fight with them, and 
are taken in battle. 

It was after this, some considerable time, that being on 
the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from 
whence, as I have said, I had in a clear day discovered the 
main, or continent of America. Friday, the weather being 
very serene, look very earnestly towards the main-land, and, 


2 10 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


in a kind of surprise, fell a jumping and dancing, and called 
out to me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked 
him, what was the matter. “ Oh, joy !” says he, “oh, glad! 
There see my country, there my nation ! ” 

I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in 
his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance dis- 
covered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in 
his own country again ; and this observation of mine put a 
great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so 
easy about my new man Friday, as I was before; and I 
made no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own 
nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but 
all his obligation to me ; and would be forward enough to 
give his countrymen an account of me, and come back 
perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast 
upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be 
with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war. 

But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for 
which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy 
increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more 
circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before; 
in which I was certainly in the wrong, too, the honest grate- 
ful creature having no thought about it, but what consisted 
with the best principles, both as a religious Christian, and as 
a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satis- 
faction. 

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was 
every day pumping him to see if he would discover any of 
the new thoughts, which I suspected were in him ; but I 
found everything he said was so honest, and so innocent, 
that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion ; and, in 
spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his 
own again, nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy, 
and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit. 

One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being 
hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called 
to him, and said, “ Friday, do not you wish yourself in your 
own country, your own nation?” “Yes,” he said, “I be 
much O glad to be at my own nation.” “ What would you 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 1 1 


do there,” said I, “ would you turn wild again, eat men’s flesh 
again, and be a savage as you were before ?” He looked full 
of concern, and, shaking his head, said, “ No, no, Friday tell 
them to live good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat 
corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk, no eat man again.” “Why, 
then,” said I to him, “ they will kill you.” He looked grave 
at that, and then said, “no, they no kill me, they willing love 
learn.” He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. 
He added, “ they learned much of the bearded-mans that 
come in the boat.” Then I asked him if he would go back 
to them. He smiled at that, and told me he could not 
swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. 
He told me he would go if I would go with him. “I go !” 
says I, “why, they will eat me if I come there?” “No, no,” 
says he, “ me make they no eat you ; me make they much 
love you.” He meant, he would tell them how I had killed 
his enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them 
love me ; then he told me as well as he could how kind 
they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he 
called them, who came on shore there in distress. 

From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over 
and see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who 
I made no doubt were Spaniards or Portuguese, not doubt- 
ing but, if I could, we might find some method to escape 
from thence, being upon the continent, and a good company 
together, better than I could from an island forty miles off 
the shore, and alone, without help. So, after some days, I 
took Friday to work again, by way of discourse, and told 
him I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation; 
and, accordingly, I carried him to my frigate, which lay on 
the other side of the island, and having cleared it of water 
(for I always kept it sunk in the water), I brought it out, 
showed it him, and we both went into it. 

I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, — 
would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could; 
so, when he was in, I said to him, “Well, now, Friday, shall 
we go to your nation?” He looked very dull at my saying 
so, which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too 
small to go so far. I told him, then, I had a bigger; so the 


212 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


next day l went to the place where the first boat lay which I 
had made, but which I could not get into water. He said 
that was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, 
and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun 
had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday 
told me such a boat would do very well, and would carry 
“ much enough vittle, drink, bread.” That was his way of 
talking. 

Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my 
design of going over with him to the continent, that I told 
him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should 
go home in it. He answered not one word, but looked very 
grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him. 
He asked me again, thus: “Why you angry mad with 
Friday? What me done?” I asked him what he meant. 
I told him I was not angry with him at all. “No angry! no 
angry!” says he, repeating the words several times. “Why 
send Friday home, away to my nation?” “Why,” said I, 
“Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?” 
“ Yes, yes,” said he; “wish be both there; no wish Friday 
there, no master there.” In a word, he would not think of 
going there without me. “I go there, Friday!” said I. 
“What shall I do there?” He turned very quick upon me 
at this. “You do great deal much good,” said he. “You 
teach wild mans to be good, sober, tame mans ; you tell them 
know God, pray God, and live new life.” “Alas! Friday,” 
said I, “thou knowest not what thou sayest. I am but an 
ignorant man myself.” “Yes, yes,” said he. “You teachee 
me good, you teachee them good.” “No, no, Friday,” said 
I, “you shall go without me. Leave me here to live by 
myself, as I did before.” He looked confused again at that 
word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to 
wear, he took it up hastily, came and gave it me. “What 
must I do with this?” said I to him. “You take kill 
Friday,” said he. “What must I kill you for?” said I, 
again. He returned very quick. “What you send Friday 
away for? Take kill Friday. No send Friday away.” This 
he spoke so earnestly that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In 
a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him 



ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH 


DRAWN BY T, STOTHARD, R. A. 


ROBINSON 


CRUSOE AND FRIDAY 


MAKING A BOAT. 


Page 213 










ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


213 


to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and 
often after, that I would never send him away from me, if he 
was willing to stay with me. 

Upon the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a settled 
affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, 
so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own 
country was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and 
his hopes of my doing them good, — a thing which I had no 
aotion of myself, so I had not the least thought, or intention, 
or desire of undertaking it. But, still, I found a strong in- 
clination to my attempting an escape, as above, found on the 
supposition gathered from the discourse, viz: that there 
were seventeen bearded men there ; and, therefore, without 
any more delay, I went to work with Friday to find out a 
great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or 
canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough 
in the island to have built a little fleet, — not of periaguas 
and canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main 
thing I looked at was to get one so near the water that we 
might launch it, when it was made, to avoid the mistake I 
committed at first. 

At last, Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew 
much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it ; nor 
can I tell, to this day, what wood to call the tree we cut 
down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or 
between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of 
the same color and smell. Friday was for burning the hol- 
low or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat; but I 
showed him how rather to cut it out w ; th tools, which, after 
I had showed him how to use, he did very handily, and in 
about a month’s hard labor, we finished it, and made it very 
handsome, especially when, with our axes, which I showed 
him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the 
true shape of a boat. After this, however, it cost us near a 
fortnight’s time to get her along, as it were, inch by inch, 
upon great rollers, into the water. But when she was in, 
she would have carried twenty men with great ease. 

When she was in the water, and though she was so big, 
it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my 


214 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


man Friday would manage her, turn her, and paddle her 
along ; so I asked him if he would, and if we might venture 
over in her. “Yes,” he said, “he venture over in her very 
well, though great blow wind.” However, I had a farther 
design that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a 
mast and sail, and to tit her with an anchor and cable. As 
to a mast, that was easy enough to get ; so I pitched upon a 
straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and 
of which there was great plenty in the island, and I set 
Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how 
to shape and order it. But as to the sail, that was my par- 
ticular care. I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces of old 
sails enough, but as I had had them now twenty-six years 
by me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not 
imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, 
I did not doubt but they were all rotten, and indeed most of 
them were so. However, I found two pieces which appeared 
pretty good, and with these I went to work, and with a great 
deal of pains, and awkward, tedious stitching (you may be 
sure) for want of needles, I at length made a three-cornered, 
ugly thing, like what we call in England, a shoulder-of-mut- 
ton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit 
at the top, such as usually our ships’ long-boats sail with, 
and such as I best knew how to manage ; because it was 
such a one as I had to the boat in which I made my escape 
from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story. 

I was near two months performing this last work, viz : rig- 
ging and fitting my mast and sails ; for I finished them very 
complete, making a small stay, and a sail, or foresail to it, 
to assist, if we should turn to windward. And what was 
more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer 
with, and though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet, as I 
knew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing, 
1 applied myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I 
brought it to pass, though, considering the many dull con- 
trivances I had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost 
as much labor as making the boat. 

After all this was done, too, I had my man Friday to teach 
as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


215 


he knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing 
what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the most 
amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the 
sea by the rudder, and how the sail jibed and filled this way 
or that way, as the course we sailed changed. I say, when 
he saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed. 
However, with a little use, I made all these things familiar 
to him, and he became an expert sailor, except that as to the 
compass, I could make him understand very little of that. 
On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, 
and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the 
less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were always to 
be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy 
seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by 
land or sea. 

I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my cap- 
tivity in this place, though the three last years that I had this 
creature with me ought, rather, to be left out of the account, 
my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest 
of the time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with 
the same thankfulness to God for his mercies as at first; 
and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had 
much more so now, having such additional testimonies of 
the care of Providence over me, and the great hope I had of 
being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invin- 
cible impression upon my thoughts that my deliverance was 
at hand, and that I should not be another year in this place. 
However, I went on with my husbandry, — digging, planting, 
fencing as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did 
every necessary thing, as before. 

The rainy season was, in the meantime, upon me, when I 
kept more within doors than at other times. So I had 
stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her 
up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning, I landed 
my rafts from the ship, and, hauling her up to the shore at 
high water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, 
just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give 
her water enough to float in ; and then, when the tide was 
out, we made a strong dam cross the end of it, to keep the 


21 6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


water out; and so she lay dry, as to the tide from the sea. 
And, to keep the rain off, we laid a great many boughs of 
trees, so thick that she was as well thatched as a house ; 
and thus we waited for the months of November and Decem- 
ber, in which I designed to make my adventure. 

When the settled season began to come in, as the thought 
of my design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing 
daily for the voyage ; and the first thing I did was to lay by 
a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our 
voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight’s time, to open 
the dock and launch out our boat. I was busy, one morn- 
ing, upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday 
and bid him go to the seashore and see if he could find a 
turtle, or tortoise, — a thing which we generally got once a 
week, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday 
had not been long gone, when he came running back, and 
flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one that felt not the 
ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had 
time to speak to him, he cried out to me , “ O Master ! O 
Master! O sorrow! O bad!” “What’s the matter, Fri- 
day?” said I. “O yonder, there,” said he; “one, two, 
three canoe ! one, two, three ! ” By his way of speaking I 
concluded there were six ; but, on inquiry, I found it was 
but three. “Well, Friday,” said I, “do not be frighted.” 
So I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw 
the poor fellow was most terribly scared, for nothing ran in 
his head but that they were come to look for him, and would 
cut him in pieces and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled 
so that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted 
him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much 
danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him. 
“ But,” said I, “ Friday, we must resolve to fight them. Can 
^you fight, Friday ? ” “ Me shoot,” said he ; “ but there come 

many great number.” “No matter for that,” said I, again; 
“ our guns will fright them that we do not kill.” So I asked 
him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would defend 
me, and stand by me, and do just as I bid him. Fie said, 
“ Me die when you bid die, master.” So I went and fetched 
a good dram of rum and gave him ; for I had been so good 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


217 


a husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When he 
had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces, which 
we always carried, and load them with large swan-shot, — as 
big as small pistol bullets. Then I took four muskets, and 
loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each ; and 
my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I 
hung my great sword, as usual, naked, by my side, and gave 
Friday his hatchet. 

When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective- 
glass, and went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could 
discover; and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were 
one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; 
and that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant 
banquet upon these three human bodies (a barbarous feast 
indeed), but nothing else more than as I had observed was 
usual with them. 

I observed also, that they were landed, not where they had 
done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, 
where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came 
close almost down to the sea. This, with the abhorrence of 
the inhuman errand these wretches came about, filled me 
with such indignation, that I came down again to Friday, 
and told him, I was resolved to go down to them, and* kill 
them all; and asked him if he would standby me? Fie 
was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little 
raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, 
and told me, as before, “he would die, when I bid die.” 

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which 
I had charged, as before, between us. I gave Friday one 
pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; 
and I took one pistol, and the other three myself; and in 
this posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum 
in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag, with more 
powder and bullets ; and as to orders, I charged him to keep 
close behind me, and not to stir or shoot, or do anything till 
I bid him ; and in the meantime, not to speak a word. In 
this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a 
mile, as well to get over the creek, as to get into the wood; 
so that I might come within shot of them before I should 


2l8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


be discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy 
to do. 

While I was making this march, my former thoughts 
returning, I began to abate my resolution ; I do not mean 
that I entertained any fear of their number ; for, as they were 
naked, unarmed wretches, ’tis certain I was superior to 
them ; nay, though I had been alone ; but it occurred to my 
thoughts, what call ? what occasion ? much less, what 
necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to 
attack people, who had neither done, or intended me any 
wrong? Who as to me were innocent, and whose barbarous 
customs were their own disaster, being in them a token 
indeed of God having left them, with the other nations of 
that part of the world, to such stupidity, and to such 
inhuman courses ; but did not call me to take upon me to be 
a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of his 
justice ; that whenever he thought fit, he would take the 
cause into his own hands, and by national vengeance punish 
them as a people, for national crimes; but, that in the mean- 
time, it was none of my business; that it was true, Friday 
might justify it, because he was a declared enemy, and in a 
state of war with those very particular people; and it was 
lawful for him to attack them ; but I could not say the same 
with respect to me. These things were so warmly pressed 
upon my thoughts, all the way as I went, that I resolved I 
would only go and place myself near them, that I might 
observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as 
God should direct ; but that unless something offered that 
was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not 
meddle with them. 

With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all 
possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at my 
heels, I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the 
side which was next to them, only that one corner cf the 
wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly to 
Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the 
corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me 
word if he could see there plainly what they were doing. 
He did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


219 

they might be plainly viewed there ; that they were all about 
their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and 
that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, 
which he said they would kill next, and which fired all the 
very soul within me. He told me it was not one of their 
nation ; but one of the bearded men, who he had told me of, 
that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with 
horror at the very naming the white-bearded man, and going 
to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass, a white man who laid 
upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied 
with flags, or things like rushes ; and that he was an 
European, and had clothes on. 

There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, 
about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I was, 
which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at 
undiscovered, and then I should be within half-shot of them. 
So I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged to 
the highest degree, and going back about twenty paces, I 
got behind some bushes, which held all the way, till I came 
to the other tree ; and then I came to a little rising ground, 
which gave me a full view of them, at the distance of about 
eighty yards. 

I had now not a moment to loose ; for nineteen of the 
dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled 
together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the 
poor Christian, and bring him perhaps, limb by limb to their 
fire, and they were stooped down to untie the bands at his 
feet. I turned to Friday, “Now Friday,” said I, “do as I 
bid thee.” Friday said he would; “then Friday, said I, 
“ do exactly as you see me do ; fail in nothing.” So I set 
down one of the muskets, and the fowling-piece upon the 
ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with the other 
musket, I took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the 
like; then asking him if he was ready? He said “yes;” 
“ then fire at them,” said I ; and the same moment I fired 
also. 

Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side 
that he shot, he killed two of them, and wounded three 
more ; and on my side, I killed one, and wounded two. 


220 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation ; 
and all cf them, who were not hurt, jumped up upon their 
feet, but did not immediately know which way to run, or 
which way to look; for they knew not from whence their 
destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, 
that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I did. So as 
soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece, 
and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like. He 
saw me cock, and present ; he did the same again. “ Are 
you ready, Friday,” said I. “Yes,” said he. “Let fly 
then,” said I, “ in the name of God; ” and with that I fired 
again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and 
as our pieces were now loaded with what I called swan shot, 
or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop : but so 
many were wounded, that they ran about yelling and 
screaming, like mad creatures, all blood)', and miserably 
wounded, most of them; whereof three more fell quickly 
after, though not quite dead. 

“ Now Friday,” said I, laying down the discharged pieces, 
and taking up the musket, which was yet loaded, “follow 
me,” said I, which he did with a great deal of courage ; 
upon which I rushed out of the wood, and showed myself, 
and Friday close at my feet. As soon as I perceived they 
saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do 
so too ; and running as fast as I could (which, by the way, 
was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was), I made 
directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying 
upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they sat, 
and the sea. The two butchers who were just going to 
work with him, had left him, at the surprise of our first fire, 
and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside, and had jumped 
into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way. 
I turned to Friday, and bid him step forwards, and fire at 
them. He understood me immediately, and running about 
forty yards, to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought 
he had killed them all; for I saw them all fall of a heap into 
the boat ; though I saw two cf them up again quickly. 
However, he killed two of them, and wounded the third ; so that 
he laydown in the bottom of the boat, as if he had been dead. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


221 


While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife 
and cut the flags that bound the poor victim, and loosing his 
hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portu- 
guese tongue, what he was? He answered in Latin, Chris- 
tianus, but was so weak and faint, that he could scarce 
stand, or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket, and 
gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which he 
did ; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he ate ; then I 
asked him, what countryman he was ? And he said, “ Espag- 
niole,” and being a little recovered, let me know by all the 
signs he ccjuld possibly make, how much he was in my debt 
for his deliverance. “ Seignior,” said I, with as much Span- 
ish as I could make up, “we will talk afterwards, but we 
must fight now; if you have any strength left, take this 
pistol and sword, and lay about you.” He took them very 
thankfully, and no Sooner had he the arms in his hands, but 
as if they had put new vigor into him, he flew upon his mur- 
derers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an 
instant; for the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to 
them, so the poor creatures were so much frighted with 
the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for mere amaze- 
ment and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own 
escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot ; and that was 
the case of those five that Friday shot at in the boat, for as 
three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other 
two fell with the fright. 

I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being 
willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the 
Spaniard my pistol and sword; so I called to Friday, and 
bade him run up to the tree, from whence we first fired, and 
fetch the arms which lay there, that had been discharged, 
which he did with great swiftness ; and then, giving him my 
musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and 
bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was 
loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement 
between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at 
him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon 
that was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it. 
The Spaniard, who was as bold and as brave as could be 


222 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian a good while, 
and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the 
savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had 
thrown him down (being faint) and was wringing my sword 
out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, 
wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, 
shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the 
spot, before I, who was running to help him, could come 
near him. 

Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying 
wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and 
with that he dispatched those three, who, as I said before, 
were wounded at first and fallen, and all the rest he could 
come up with, and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I 
gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued 
two of the savages, and wounded them both ; but as he was 
not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where 
Friday pursued them, and killed one of them, but the other 
was too nimble for him, and, though he was wounded, yet 
had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all his 
might off to those two who were left in the canoe ; which 
three in the canoe, with one wounded, who we know 
not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our 
hands of one-and-twenty. The account of the rest is as 
follows : 

Three killed at our first shot from the tree ; two killed at 
the next shot; two killed by Friday in the boat; two killed 
by Friday, of those at first wounded; one killed by Friday in 
the wood; three killed by the Spaniard; four killed, being 
found dropped here and there of their wounds, or killed by 
Friday in chase of them; four escaped in the boat, whereof 
one wounded, if not dead; twenty-one in all. 

Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of 
gun-shot; and though Friday made two or three shots at 
them, I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would 
fain have had me take one of their canoes, and pursue 
them ; and, indeed I was very anxious about their escape, 
least carrying the news home to their people, they should 
come back, perhaps with two or three hundred of their 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


223 


canoes, and devour us by mere multitude ; so I consented to 
pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes I 
jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was in 
the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie 
there alive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for 
the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what 
the matter was, for he had not been able to look up over 
the side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and heels, 
and had been tied so long, that he had really but little life 
in him. 

I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, which they 
had bound him with, and would have helped him up ; but he 
could not stand, or speak, but groaned most piteously, 
believing, it seems, still that he was only unbound in order 
to be killed. 

When Friday came to me, I bade him speak to him and 
tell him of his deliverance, and pulling out my bottle, made 
him give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of 
his being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat; 
but when P'riday came to hear him speak, and look in his 
face, it would have moved anyone to tears, to have seen 
how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, 
laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung, then cried 
again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and 
then sung, and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. 
It was a good while before I could make him speak to me, 
or tell me what was the matter ; but when he came a little 
to himself, he told me that it was his father. 

It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see 
what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor 
savage, at the sight of his father, and of his being delivered 
from death; nor indeed can 1 describe half the extravagan- 
cies of his affection after this ; for he went into the boat and 
out of the boat a great many times. When he went in to 
him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold 
his father’s head close to his bosom, half an hour together, 
to nourish it ; then he took his arms and ankles, which were 
numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed and rubbed 
them with his hands ; and I, perceiving what the case was, 


224 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which 
did them a great deal of good. 

This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe, with 
the other savages, who were getting almost out of sight; 
and it was happy for us that we did not; for it blew so hard 
within two hours after, and before they could be gone a 
quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all 
night, and that from the north-west, which was against them, 
that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they 
ever reached their own coast. 

But to return to Friday, he was so busy about his father, 
that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some 
time ; but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called 
him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased 
to. the highest extreme; then I asked him, if he had given 
his father any bread ? He shook his head, and said, “ None : 
ugly dog eat all up self ; ” so I gave him a cake of bread out 
of a little pouch I carried on purpose; I also gave him a 
dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to 
his father. I had in my pocket, also, two or three bunches 
of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for his father. 
He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but I saw 
him come out of the boat, and run away, as if he had been 
bewitched, he run at such a rate ; for he was the swiftest 
fellow of his foot that ever I saw, — I say he run at such a 
rate, that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and 
though I called, and hallooed too, after him, it was all one, 
away he went, and in a quarter of an hour, I saw him come 
back again, though not so fast as he went; and, as he came 
nearer, I found his pace was slacker, because he had some- 
thing in his hand. 

When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home 
for an earthen jug or pot to bring his father some fresh 
water, and that he had got two more cakes, or loaves of 
bread : the bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his 
father ; however, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little 
sup of it. This water revived his father more than all the 
rum or spirits I had given him; for he was just fainting with 
thirst. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


225 

When his father had drank, I called to him to know if 
there was any water left; he said yes ; and I bade him give 
it to the poor Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as 
his father; and I sent one of the cakes that Friday brought, 
to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was 
reposing himself upon a green place, under the shade of a 
tree, and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very much 
swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with. When 
I saw that upon Friday’s coming to him with the water, he 
sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began to eat, I 
went to him, and gave him a handful of raisins; he looked 
up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankful- 
ness that could appear in any countenance; but was so 
weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the fight, 
that he could not stand up upon his feet ; he tried to do it 
two or three times, but was really not able, his ankles were 
so swelled and so painful to him ; so I bade him sit still, 
and caused Friday to rub his ankles, and bathe them with 
rum, as he had done his father’s. 

I observed the poor affectionate creature every two min- 
utes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned 
his head about, to see if his father was in the same place, 
and posture, as he left him sitting; and at last he found he 
was not to be seen; at which he started up, and without 
speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one 
could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground, as he 
went : but when he came, he only found he had laid himself 
down to ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me pres- 
ently, and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help 
him up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he 
should carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care 
of him ; but Friday, a lusty, strong fellow, took the Spaniard 
quite up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, 
and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the 
canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and then lifted 
him quite in, and set him close to his father, and presently 
stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it 
along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind 
blew pretty hard too ; so he brought them both safe into our 
8 


226 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


creek ; and leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch the 
other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked 
him, whither he went; he told me, “go fetch more boat; ” so 
away he went, like the wind ; for sure never man or horse 
run like him, and he had the other canoe in the creek almost 
as soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and 
then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he 
did, but they were neither of them able to walk; so that 
poor Friday knew not what to do. 

To remedy this I went to work in my thought, and calling 
to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came 
to me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, 
and Friday and I carried them up both together upon* it 
between us. But when we got them to the outside of our 
wall, or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before ; 
for it was impossible to get them over, and I was resolved 
not to break it down. So I set to work again, and Friday 
and I, in about two hours’ time, made a very handsome tent, 
covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, 
being in the space without our outward fence, and between 
that and the grove of young wood which I had planted. 
And here we made them two beds of such things as I had, 
viz: of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, 
and another to cover them, on each bed. 

My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very 
rich in subjects ; and it was a merry reflection which I fre- 
quently made, how like a king I looked. First of all, the 
whole country was my own mere property, so that I had an 
undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were 
perfectly subjected. I was absolute lord and lawgiver. 
They all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down 
their lives, if there had been occasion of it, for me. It was 
remarkable, too, we had but three subjects, and they were 
of three different religions. My man Friday was a Protes- 
tant, his father was a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Span- 
iard was a Papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience 
throughout my dominions. But this is by the way. 

As soon as I had secured my two weak, rescued prisoners, 
and given them shelter and a place to rest them upon, I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


227 

began to think of making some provision for them; and the 
first thing I did, I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat 
(betwixt a kid and a goat), out of my particular flock, to be 
killed, when I cut off the hinder quarter, and chopping it 
into small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stew- 
ing, and made them a very good dish, I assure you, of flesh 
and broth, having put some barley and rice, also, into the 
broth. And as I cooked it without doors, for I made no fire 
within my inner wall, so I carried it all into the new tent: 
and having set a table there for them, I sat down and eat 
my own dinner, also, with them, and, as well as I could, 
cheered them and encouraged them, Friday being my inter- 
preter, especially to his father, and, indeed, to the Spaniard, 
too ; for the Spaniard spoke the language of the savages 
pretty well. 

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to 
take one of the canoes and go and fetch our muskets, and 
other fire-arms, which, for want of time, we had left upon the 
place of battle. And the next day I ordered him to go and 
bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay open to the 
sun, and would presently be offensive. And I also ordered 
him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which 
I knew were pretty much, and which I could not think of 
doing myself; nay, I could not bear to see them, if I went 
that way, — all which he punctually performed, and effaced 
the very appearance of the savages being there ; so that 
when I went again I could scarce know where it was, other- 
wise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the place. 

I then began to enter into a little , conversation with my 
two new subjects; and first, I set Friday to inquire of his 
father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that 
canoe, and whether we might expect a return of them with a 
power too great for us to resist. His first opinion was that 
the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which 
blew that night they went off, but must, of necessity, be 
drowned, or driven south, to those other shores, where they 
were as sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned if 
they were cast away. But as to what they would do if they 
came safe on shore, he said he knew not ; but it was his 


228 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


opinion that they were so dreadfully frighted with the 
manner of their being attacked, the noise and the fire, that 
he believed they would tell their people they were all killed 
by thunder and lightning, not by the hand of man, and that 
the two which appeared, viz: Friday and me, were two 
heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to destroy them, and 
not men with weapons. This he said he knew, because he 
heard them all cry out so, in their language, to one another; 
for it was impossible to them to conceive that a man could 
dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill at a distance without 
lifting up the hand, as was done now. And this old savage 
was in the right ; for, as I understood since, by other hands, 
the savages never attempted to go over to the island after- 
wards. They were so terrified with the accounts given by 
those four men (for, it seems, they did escape the sea), that 
they believed whoever went to that enchanted island would 
be destroyed with fire from the gods. 

This, however, I knew not, and therefore was under con- 
tinual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon 
my guard, — me, and all my army. For as we were now four 
of us, I would have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly, 
in the open field, at any time. 

In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the 
fear of their coming wore off, and I began to take my former 
thoughts of a voyage to the main into consideration, being 
likewise assured by Friday’s father that I might depend 
upon good usage from their nation on his account, if I 
would go. 

But my thoughts were a little suspended, when I had a 
serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood 
that there were sixteen more of his countrymen and Portu- 
guese, which is near that number, who, having been cast 
away, and made their escape to that side, lived there at 
peace, indeed, with the savages, but were very sore put to 
it for necessaries, and, indeed, for life. I asked him all the 
particulars of their voyage, and found they were a Spanish 
ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havana, being 
directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides 
and silver, and to bring back what European goods they 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


229 


could meet with there ; that they had five Portuguese seamen 
on board, whom they took out of another wreck ; that five 
of their own men were drowned when the first ship was lost, 
and that these escaped through infinite dangers and hazards, 
and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast, where 
they expected to have been devoured every moment. 

He told me they had some arms with them, but they were 
perfectly useless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, 
the washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder but a 
little, which they used at their first landing to provide them- 
selves some food. 

I asked him what he thought would become of them 
there, and if they had formed no design of making any 
escape. He said they had many consultations about it, but 
that having neither vessel nor tools to build one, nor pro- 
visions of any kind, their councils always ended in tears and 
despair. 

I asked him how he thought they would receive a pro- 
posal from me which might tend towards an escape ; and 
whether, if they were all here, it might not be done. I told 
him, with freedom, I feared mostly their treachery and ill 
usage of me, if I put my life in their hands, for that gratitude 
was no inherent virtue in the nature of man; nor did men 
always square their dealings by the obligations they had 
received, so much as they did by the advantages they ex- 
pected. I told him it would be very hard, that I should be 
the instrument of their deliverance, and that they should 
afterward make me their prisoner in New Spain, where an 
Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what neces- 
sity, or what accident soever brought him thither ; and that 
I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured 
alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and 
be carried into the inquisition. I added, that otherwise I 
was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so 
many hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all away, 
either to the Brazils, southward, or to the islands, or Spanish 
coast northward ; but that, if in requital, they should, when 
I had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force 
among their own people, I might be ill used for my kind- 


230 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ness to them, and make my case worse than it was 
before. 

He answered with a great deal of candor and ingenuity, 
that their condition was so miserable, and they were so 
sensible of it, that he believed they would abhor the thought 
of using any man unkindly that should contribute to their 
deliverance; and that, if I pleased, he would go to them 
with the old man, and discourse with them about it, and 
return again, and bring me their answer. That he would 
make conditions with them upon their solemn oath, that 
they should be absolutely under my leading, as their com- 
mander and captain ; and that they should swear upon the 
holy sacraments and the Gospel, to be true to me, and to go 
to such Christian country, as that I should agree to, and no 
other; and to be directed wholly and absolutely by my 
orders, till they were landed safely in such country as I 
intended; and that he would bring a contract from them 
under their hands for that purpose. 

Then he told me he would first swear to me himself, that 
he would never stir from me as long as he lived, till I gave 
him orders ; and that he would take my side to the last drop 
of his blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith 
among his countrymen. 

He told me, they were all of them very civil, honest men, 
and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having 
neither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy 
and discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever 
returning to their own country ; and that he was sure, if I 
would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me. 

Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve 
them, if possible, and to send the old savage and this Span- 
iard over to them to treat ; but when we had gotten all 
things in a readiness to go, the Spaniard himself started an 
objection, which had so much prudence in it on one hand, 
and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could not but 
be very well satisfied in it; and by his advice, put off the 
deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. The 
case was thus : 

He had been with us now about a month ; during which 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


231 


time, I had let him see in what manner I had provided, with 
the assistance of Providence, for my support; and he saw 
evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid up; which, 
as it was more than sufficient for myself, so it was not suffi- 
cient, at least without good husbandry, for my family. Now 
it was increased to number four ; but much less would it be 
sufficient, if his countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen 
still alive, should come over. And least of all would it be 
sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a 
voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America. So he 
told me he thought it would be more advisable, to let him 
and the two others dig and cultivate some more land, as 
much as I could spare seed to sow ; and that we should 
wait another harvest, that we might have a supply of corn 
for his countrymen when they should come ; for want might 
be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think them- 
selves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into 
another. “You know,” said he, “the children of Israel, 
though they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out of 
Egypt, yet rebelled even against God himself, that delivered 
them, when they came to want bread in the wilderness.” 

His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, 
that I could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, 
as well as I was satisfied with his fidelity.' So we fell to 
digging, all four of us, as well as the wooden ,tools we were 
furnished with permitted ; and in about a month’s time, by 
the end of which it was seed-time, we had gotten as much 
land cured and trimmed up, as we sowed twenty-two bushels 
of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice, which was, in short, all 
the seed we had to spare; nor indeed, did we leave our- 
selves barley sufficient for our own food, for the six months 
that we had to expect our crop ; that is to say, reckoning 
from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is 
not to be supposed it is six months in the ground in that 
country. 

Having now society enough, and our number being suffi- 
cient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come, 
unless their number had been very great, we went freely 
all over the island, wherever we found occasion ; and as here 


232 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


we had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts, it was 
impossible, at least for me, to have the means of it out of 
mine ; to this purpose, I marked out several trees which I 
thought fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to 
cutting them down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to 
whom I imparted my thought on that affair, to oversee and 
direct their work. I showed them with what indefatigable 
pains I had hewed a large tree into single planks, and I 
caused them to do the like, till they had made about a dozen 
large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five 
feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick. What 
prodigious labor it took up, anyone may imagine. 

At the same time I contrived to increase my little dock of 
tame goats as much as I could ; and to this purpose, I made 
Friday and the Spaniard go out one day, and myself with 
Friday the next day ; for we took our turns. And by this 
means we got above twenty young kids to breed up with the 
rest ; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and 
added them to our flock. But above all, the season for 
curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a prodigious 
quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, I believe, had we 
been at Alicant, where the raisins of the sun are cured, we 
could have filled sixty or eighty barrels ; and these with our 
bread was a great part of our food, and very good living too, 
I assure you; for it is an exceeding nourishing food. 

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order; it was 
not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, 
however, it was enough to answer our end; for from our 
twenty-two bushels of barley, we brought in and threshed 
out above two hundred and twenty bushels ; and the like in 
proportion of the rice, which was store enough for our food 
to the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had 
been on shore with me ; or if we had been ready for a 
voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship, to 
have carried us to any part of the world, that is to say, of 
America. 

When we had thus housed and secured our magazine of 
corn, we fell to work to make more wicker work, viz : great 
baskets in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


233 


handy and dexterous at this part, and often blamed me that 
I did not make some things for defense, of this kind of work, 
but I saw no need of it. 

And now having a full supply of food for all the guests I 
expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, 
to see what he could do with those he had left behind him 
there. I gave him a strict charge in writing, not to bring 
any men with him who would not first swear in the presence 
of himself and of the old savage, that he would no way 
injure, fight with, or attack the person he should find in the 
island, who was so kind to send for them in order to their 
deliverance ; but that they would stand by and defend him 
against all such attempts, and wherever they went, would be 
entirely under and subjected to his commands ; and that 
this should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. 
How we were to have this done, when I knew they had 
neither pen or ink ; that, indeed was a question which we 
never asked. 

Under these instructions, the Spaniard, and the old sav- 
age, the father of Friday, went away in one of the canoes, 
which they might be said to come in, or rather were brought 
in, when they came as prisoners to be devoured by the 
savages. 

I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and 
about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to be 
very good husbands of both, and not to use either of them 
but upon urgent occasion. 

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used 
by me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven years 
and some days. I gave them provisions of bread, and of 
dried grapes, sufficient for themselves for many days, and 
sufficient for all their countrymen for about eight days’ time; 
and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go, agreeing 
with them about a signal they should hang out at their 
return, by which I should know them again, when they came 
back, at a distance, before they came on shore. 

They went away with a fair gale on. the day that the moon 
was at full, by my account, in the month of October : but as 
for an exact reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could 


234 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


never recover it again ; nor had I kept even the number of 
years so punctually, as to be sure that I was right, though, as 
it proved, when I afterwards examined my account, I found 
I had kept a true reckoning of years. 

It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, 
when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which 
the like has not perhaps been heard of in history. was 
fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday 
came running in to me, and called aloud, “ Master, master, 
they are come, they are come.” 

I jumped up, and regardless of danger, I went out, as soon 
as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which 
by the way was by this time grown to be a very thick wood ; 
I say, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which 
was not my custom to do ; but I was surprised, when turn- 
ing my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a 
league and a half’s distance, standing in for the shore, with 
a shoulder -of-mutton sail, as they call it; and the wind blow- 
ing pretty fair to bring them in; also I observed, presently, 
that they did not come from that side which the shore lay 
on, but from the southernmost end of the island. Upon this 
I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for these were not 
the people we looked for, and that we might not know yet 
whether they were friends or enemies. 

In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, 
to see what I could make of them; and having taken the 
ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to 
do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my 
view the plainer without being discovered. 

I had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly 
discovered a ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues 
and an half distance from me south-south-east, but not 
above a league and an half from the shore. By my observa- 
tion it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and the boat 
appeared to be an English long-boat. 

I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy 
of seeing a ship, and one which I had reason to believe was 
manned by my own countrymen, and consequently friends, 
was such as I cannot describe ; but yet I had some secret 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


235 


doubts hung about me, I cannot tell from whence they came, 
bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it oc- 
curred to me to consider what business an English ship 
could have in that part of the world, since it was not the way 
to or from any part of the world where the English had any 
traffic ; and I knew there had been no storms to drive them 
in there, as in distress ; and that if they were English really, 
it was most probable that they were here upon no good 
design ; and that I had better continue as I was, than fall 
into the hands of thieves and murderers. 

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, 
which sometimes are given him, when he may think there is 
no possibility of its being real. That such hints and notices 
are given us, I believe few that have made any observations 
of things can deny ; that they are certain discoveries of an 
invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt ; 
and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of 
danger, why should we not suppose they are from some 
friendly agent, whether supreme, or inferior and subordi- 
nate, is not the question ; and that they are given for our 
good ? 

The present question abundantly confirms me in the jus- 
tice of this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by 
this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, I had 
been undone inevitably, and in a far worse condition than 
before, as you will see presently. 

I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the 
boat draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to 
• thrust in at for the convenience of landing. However, as 
they did not come quite far enough, they did not see the 
little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but run their 
boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, 
which was very happy for me ; for, otherwise, they would 
have landed just as I may say at my door, and would soon 
have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps would have 
plundered me of all I had. 

When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied that they 
were Englishmen, at least most of them, one or two I 
thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so. There were 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


236 

in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were un- 
armed, and as I thought bound ; and when the first four or 
five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three 
out of the boat as prisoners. One of the three I could per- 
ceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, afflic- 
tion and despair, even to a kind of extravagance ; the other 
two I could perceive lifted up their hands sometimes, and 
appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the 
first. 

I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not 
what the meaning of it should be. Friday called out to me 
in English as well as he could, “ O Master! You see English 
mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans.” “ Why,” says 
I, “ Friday, do you think they are going to eat them, then?” 
“Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat them.” “No, no,” says 
I, “Friday, I am afraid they will murder them indeed, but 
you may be sure they will not eat them.” 

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really 
was ; but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, 
expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be 
killed ; nay, once I saw one of the villains lift up his arm 
with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword, to strike 
one of the poor men, and I expected to see him fall every 
moment, at which all the blood in my body seemed to run 
chill in my veins. 

I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage 
that was gone with him; or that I had any way to have 
come undiscovered within shot of them, that I might have 
rescued the three men, for I saw no firearms they had among 
them ; but it fell out to my mind another way. 

After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three 
men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scat- 
tering about the land, as if they wanted to see the country. 
I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also 
where they pleased ; but they sat down all three upon the 
ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair. 

This put me in mind of the first time when I came on 
shore, and began to look about me ; how I gave myself over 
for lost ; how wildly I looked round me ; what dreadful 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 237 

apprehensions I had ; and how I lodged in the tree all night 
for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. 

As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive 
by the providential driving of the ship nearer the land, by 
the storms and tide, by which I have since been so long 
nourished and supported, so these three poor desolate men 
knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they 
were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and 
really they were in a condition of safety, at the same time 
that they thought themselves lost, and their case desperate. 

So little do we see before us in the world, and so much 
reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker 
of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so abso- 
lutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they 
have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes 
are nearer their deliverance than they imagine, — nay, are 
even brought to their deliverance by the means by which 
they seem to be brought to their destruction. 

It was just at the top of high water when these people 
came on shore, and while partly they stood parleying with 
the prisoners they brought, and partly while they rambled 
about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had 
carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water 
was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. 

They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found after- 
wards, having drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep. 
However, one of them waking sooner than the other, and 
finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed 
for the rest who were straggling about, upon which they all 
soon came to the boat: but it was past all their strength to 
launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that 
side being a soft, oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. 

In this condition, like true seamen, who are, perhaps, the 
least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, 
and away they strolled about the country again, and I heard 
one of them say aloud to another, calling them off from the 
boat, “Why let her alone, Jack, can’t ye, she will float 
next tide ? ” by which I was fully confirmed in the main 
enquiry, — of what countrymen they were. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


238 

All this while I kept myself very close, not once daring to 
stir out of my castle any farther than to my place of obser- 
vation, near the top of the hill; and very glad I was to think 
how well it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten 
hours before the boat could be on float again, and by that 
time it would be dark, and I might be at more liberty to 
see their motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had 
any. 

In the meantime I fitted myself up for a battle, as before, 
though with more caution, knowing I had to do with 
another kind of enemy than I had at first. I ordered 
Friday, also, who I had made an excellent marksman with 
his gun, to load himself with arms. I took, myself, two 
fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure, 
indeed, was very fierce : I had my formidable goat-skin coat 
on, with the great cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by 
my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each 
shoulder. 

It was my design, as I said before, not to have made 
any attempt till it was dark. But about two o’clock, being 
the heat of the day, I found that, in short, they were all 
gone straggling into the woods, and, as I thought, were 
laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too 
anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, 
set down under the shelter of a great tree, at about a 
quarter of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of 
any of the rest. 

Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn 
something of their condition. Immediately I marched in the 
figure as above, my man Friday at a good distance behind 
me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not making quite so 
staring a spectre-like figure as I did. 

I came as near them, undiscovered, as I could, and then, 
before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them, in 
Spanish, “What are ye, gentlemen?” 

They started up at the noise, but were ten times more 
confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that 
I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I per- 
ceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


239 


in English. “ Gentlemen,” said I, “ do not be surprised at 
me ; perhaps you may have a friend near you when you did 
not expect it.” “ He must be sent directly from Heaven, 
then,” said one of them, very gravely, to me, and pulling off 
his hat at the same time to me, “for our condition is past 
the help of man.” “All help is from Heaven, sir,” said I. 
“ But can you put a stranger in the way how to help you, 
for you seem to me to be in some great distress? I saw you 
when you landed; and when you seemed to make supplica- 
tions to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them 
lift up his sword to kill you.” 

The poor man, with tears running down his face, and 
trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, “Am I 
talking to God or man? Is it a real man, or an angel?” 
“Be in no fear about that, sir,” said I, “if God had sent an 
angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and 
armed after another manner than you see me in ; pray lay 
aside your fears, I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed 
to assist you, you see. I have one servant only; we have 
arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you? 
What is your case ? ” 

“Our case,” said he, “sir, is too long to tell you, while 
our murderers are so near; but, in short, sir, I was com- 
mander of that ship ; my men have mutinied against me. 
They have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and 
at last have set me on shore in this desolate place, with 
these two men with me ; one my mate, the other a passen- 
ger, where we expected to perish, believing the place to be 
uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it.” 

“Where are those brutes, your enemies ? ” said I ; “do you 
know where they are gone ? ” “ There they lie, sir,” said he, 

pointing to a thicket of trees ; “ my heart trembles for fear 
they have seen us, and heard you speak ; if they have, they 
will certainly murder us all.” 

“Have they any fire-arms ? ” said I. He answered th ay 
had only two pieces, and one which they left in the boat. 
“Well, then,” said I, “leave the rest to me; I see they are 
all asleep, it is an easy thing to kill them all, but shall we 
rather take them prisoners ? ” He told me there were two 


240 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


desperate villains among them that it was scarce safe to 
show any mercy to, but if they were secured, he believed all 
the rest would return to their duty. I asked him which they 
were. He told me he could not at that distance describe 
them ; but he would obey my orders in anything I would 
direct. “Well,” said I, “let us retreat out of their view 
or hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve further.” So 
they willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us 
from them. 

“ Look you, sir,” s'aid I, “if I venture upon your deliver- 
ance, are you willing to make two conditions with me?” 
He anticipated my proposals, by telling me, that both he 
and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly directed and 
commanded by me in everything; and if the ship was not 
recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the 
world soever I would send him ; and the two other men 
said the same. 

“Well,” said I, “my conditions are but two. First, that 
while you stay on this island with me, you will not pretend 
to any authority here ; and if I put arms into your hands, 
you will upon all occasions give them up to me, and do no 
prejudice to me or mine, upon this island, and in the mean 
time be governed by my orders. 

“ Second, that if the ship is, or may be recovered, you will 
carry me and my man to England, passage free.” 

He gave me all the assurances that the invention and faith 
of man could devise, that he would comply with these most 
reasonable demands ; and, besides, would owe his life to me, 
and acknowledge it upon all occasions as long as he lived. 

“Well, then,” said I, “here are three muskets for you, 
with powder and ball; tell me next what you think is proper 
to be done.” He showed all the testimony of his gratitude 
that he was able ; but offered to be wholly guided by me. I 
told him I thought it was hard venturing anything, but the 
best method I could think of was to fire upon them at once, 
as they lay; and if any was not killed at the first volley, and 
offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly 
upon God’s providence to direct the shot. 

He said very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


241 


he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, 
and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and 
if they escaped, we should be undone still ; for they would 
go on board, and bring the whole ship’s company, and de- 
stroy us all. “ Well then,” said I,“ Necessity legitimates my 
advice; for it is the only way to save our lives.” However, 
seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told him they 
should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. 

In the middle of this discourse, we heard some of them 
awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I 
asked him, if either of them were of the men who he had 
said were the heads of the mutiny. He said, “No.” “ Well 

then,” said I, “you may let them escape, and Providence 
seems to have wakened them on purpose to save themselves. 
“ Now,” said I, “if the rest escape you, it is your fault.” 

Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him, 
in his hand, and a pistol in his belt; and his two comrades 
with him, with each man a piece in his hand. The two 
men who were with him going first, made some noise, at 
which one of the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and 
seeing them coming, cried out to the rest ; but it was too 
late then; for the moment he cried out, they fired; I mean 
the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. 
They had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, 
that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very 
much wounded ; but not being dead, he started up upon his 
feet, and called eagerly for help to the other ; but the captain, 
stepping to him, told him ’twas too late to cry for help, he 
should call upon God to forgive his villainy, and with that 
word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so 
that he never spoke more. There were three more in the 
company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. By 
this time I was come ; and when they saw their danger, and 
that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. The 
captain told them he would spare their lives, if they would 
give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery 
they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to 
him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her 
back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him 


242 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, 
and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, 
which I was not against; only I obliged him to keep them 
bound hand and foot while they were upon the island. 

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain’s 
mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away 
the oars and sail, which they did ; and by-and-by, three 
straggling men that were (happily for them) parted from the 
rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing their 
captain, who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, 
they submitted to be bound also ; and so our victory was 
complete. 

It now remained, that the captain and I should enquire 
into one another’s circumstances. I began first, and told 
him my whole history, which he heard with an attention even 
to amazement; and particularly, at the wonderful manner of 
my being furnished with provisions and ammunition ; and 
indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it 
affected him deeply ; but when he reflected from thence 
upon himself, and how I seemed to have been preserved 
there, on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his 
face, and he could not speak a word more. 

After this communication was at an end, I carried him 
and his two men into my apartment, leading them in, just 
whdre I came out, viz : at the top of the house, where I 
refreshed them with such provisions as I had, and showed 
them all the contrivances I had made, during my long, long 
inhabiting that place. 

All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amaz- 
ing; but, above all, the captain admired my fortification, and 
how perfectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of 
trees, which, having been now planted near twenty years, 
and the trees growing much faster than in England, was 
become a little wood, and so thick that it was impassable in 
any part of it but at that one side where I had reserved my 
little winding passage into it. I told him this was my castle 
and my residence, but that I had a seat in the country, as 
most princes have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, 
and I would show him that, too, another time ; but, at pres- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


243 


ent, our business was to consider how to recover the ship. 
He agreed with me as to that, but told me lie was perfectly 
at a loss what measures to take, for that there were still six 
and-twenty hands on board, who, having entered into a 
cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives 
to the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation ; and 
would carry it on, knowing that, if they were reduced, they 
should be brought to the gallows as soon as they came to 
England, or to any of the English colonies ; and that, there- 
fore, there would be no attacking them with so small a 
number as we were. 

I mused for some time upon what he said, and found it 
was a very rational conclusion, and that, therefore, some- 
thing was to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw 
the men on board into some snare for their surprise, as to 
prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon 
this it presently occurred to me that, in a little while, the 
ship’s crew, wondering what was become of their comrades 
and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their other 
boat to see for them, and that then, perhaps, they might 
come armed and be too strong for us ; this, he allowed, was 
rational. 

Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do was to 
stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might 
not carry her off, and, taking everything out of her, leave 
her so far useless as not to be fit to swim. Accordingly, we 
went on board, took the arms which were left on board out 
of her, and whatever else we found there, — which was a 
bottle of brandy and another of rum, a few biscuit cakes, a 
horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar, in a piece of 
canvass ; the sugar was five or six pounds. All which was 
very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of 
which I had had none left for many years. 

When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, 
mast, sail and rudder of the boat were carried away before, 
as above), we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if 
they had come near enough to master us, yet they could not 
carry off the boat. 

Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts that we could be 


244 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


able to recover the ship ; but my view was, that if they went 
away without the boat, I did not much question to make her 
fit again to carry us away to the leeward islands, and call 
upon our friends, the Spaniards, in my way, for I had them 
still in my thoughts. 

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, 
by main strength, heaved the boat up upon the beach, so 
high that the tide would not float her off at high-water mark, 
and, besides, had broke a hole in her bottom too big to be 
quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what we should 
do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft 
with her ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board; 
but no boat stirred, and they fired several times, making 
other signals for the boat. 

At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless, 
and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the 
help of my glasses, hoist another boat out and row towards 
the shore ; and we found, as they approached, that there was 
no less than ten men in her, and that they had firearms with 
them. 

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had 
a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight of the 
men, — even of their faces, because the tide having set them 
a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed up under 
shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed, 
and where the boat lay. 

By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the 
captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in 
the boat, of whom he said, that there were three very 
honest fellows, who he was sure, were led into this con- 
spiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frighted. 

But that as for the boatswain, who, it seems, was the 
chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as out- 
rageous as any of the ship’s crew, and were, no doubt, made 
desperate in their new enterprise, and terribly apprehensive 
he was that they should be too powerful for us. 

I smiled at him, and told him, that men in our circum- 
stances were past the operation of fear. That seeing almost 
every condition that could be, was better than that which we 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


245 

were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the conse 
quence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliv- 
erance. I asked him, what he thought of the circumstances 
of my life ; and whether a deliverance were not worth 
venturing for. “ And where, sir,’’ said I, “ is your belief of 
my being preserved here on purpose to save your life, which 
elevated you a little while ago? For my part,” said I, 
“ there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the prospect 
of it.” “ What’s that,” said he. “Why,” said I, ‘tis that, 
as you say, there are three or four honest fellows among 
them, which should be spared. Had they been all of the 
wicked part of the crew, I should have thought God’s provi- 
dence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands; 
for, depend upon it, every man of them that comes ashore 
are our own, and shall die or live, as they behave to us.” 

As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful counte- 
nance, I found it greatly encouraged him ; so we set vigorously 
to our business. We had, upon the first appearance of the 
boat’s coming from the ship, considered of separating our 
prisoners, and had indeed secured them effectually. 

Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than 
ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three (delivered 
men) to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out 
of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their 
way out of the woods, if they could have delivered them- 
selves. Here they left them bound, but gave them provi- 
sions, and promised them if they continued there quietly, to 
give them their liberty in a day or two ; but that, if they 
attempted their escape, they should be put to death without 
mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their confinement 
with patience, and were very thankful that they had such 
good usage, as to have provisions, and a light left them ; for 
Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for 
their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood 
sentinel over them at the entrance. 

The other prisoners had better usage. Two of them were 
kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was not free to 
trust them; but the other two were taken into my service 
upon their captain’s recommendation, and upon their sol- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


246 

emnly engaging to live and die with us ; so with them and 
the three honest men, we were seven men well armed ; and 
I made no doubt we should be able to deal well enough with 
the ten that were coming, considering that the captain had 
said, there were three or four honest men among them also. 

As soon as they got to the place where their other boat 
lay, they run their boat into the beach, and came all on 
shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to 
see ; for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat 
at an anchor, some distance from the shore, with some hands 
in her, to guard her ; and so we should not be able to seize 
the boat. 

Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to 
their other boat, and it was easy to see that they were under 
a great surprise, to find her stripped as above, of all that 
was in her, and a great hole in her bottom. 

After they had mused awhile upon this, they set up two 
or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try 
if they could make their companions hear ; but all was to no 
purpose. Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a 
volley of their small arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the 
echoes made the woods ring; but it was all one, those in 
the cave we were sure could not hear, and those in our 
keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no 
answer to them. 

They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as 
they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board 
again to their ship, and let them know there that the men 
were all murdered, and the long-boat staved. Accordingly, 
they immediately launched their boat again, and all of them 
got on board. 

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at 
this, believing they would go on board the ship again, and 
set sail, giving their comrades for lost, and so he should 
still lose the ship, which he was in hopes we should have 
recovered; but he was quickly as much frighted the other 
way. 

They had not been long put off with the boat, but we 
perceived them all coming on shore again, but with this new 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


247 


measure in their conduct, which, it seems, they consulted 
together upon, viz : to leave three men in the boat, and the 
rest to go on shore, and to go up into the country to look 
for their fellows. 

This was a great disappointment to us, for now we were 
at a loss what to do; for our seizing those seven men on 
shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat escape, 
because they would then row away to the ship, and then the 
rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so our 
recovering the ship would be lost. 

However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the 
issue .of things might present. The seven men came on 
shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to 
a good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to 
wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come at 
them in the boat. 

Those that came on shore kept close together, marching 
towards the top of the little hill, under which my habitation 
lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not 
perceive us. We could have been very glad they would 
have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them, 
or that they would have gone farther off, that we might have 
come abroad. 

But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where 
they could see a great way into the valleys and woods which 
lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay 
lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary ; and 
not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far 
from one another, they sat down together under a tree, to 
consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep 
there, as the other party of them had done, they had done 
the job for us ; but they were too full of apprehensions of 
danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell 
what the danger was they had to fear, neither. 

The captain made a very just proposal to me, upon this 
consultation of theirs, viz : that perhaps they would all fire 
a volley again, to endeavor to make their fellows hear, and 
that we should all sally upon them, just at the juncture when 
their pieces were all discharged, and they would certainly 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


248 

yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. I liked 
the proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough 
to come up to them, before they could load their pieces 
again. 

But this event did not happen, and we lay still a long time, 
very irresolute what course to take. At length, I told them 
there would be nothing to be done, in my opinion, till night; 
and then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps we 
might find a way to get between them and the shore, and so 
might use some stratagem with them in the boat, to get them 
on shore. 

We waited a great while, though very impatient for their 
removing, and were very uneasy when, after long con- 
sultations, we saw them start all up and march down 
towards the sea. It seems they had such dreadful appre- 
hensions upon them of the danger of the place, that they 
resolved to go on board the ship again, give their compan- 
ions over for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage 
with the ship. 

As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I 
imagined it to be as it really was, that they had given over 
their search, and were for going back again ; and the captain, 
as soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the 
apprehension of it. But I presently thought of a stratagem 
to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a 
tittle. 

I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over the 
little creek westward, towards the place where the savages 
came on shore when Friday was rescued; and as soon as 
they came to a little rising ground, at about half a mile 
distance, I bade them halloo as loud as they could, and wait 
till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as 
ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should 
return it again, and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, 
always answering when the other hallooed, to draw them 
as far into the island, and among the woods as possible, 
and then wheel about again to me, by such ways as I directed 
them. 

They were just going into the boat, when Friday and the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


249 


mate hallooed, and they presently heard them, and, answer- 
ing, ran along the shore westward, towards the voice they 
heard, when they were presently stopped by the creek, 
where, the water being up, they could not get over, and 
called for the boat to come up and set them over, as, indeed, 

I expected. 

When they had set themselves over, I observed that, the 
boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and, as it 
were, in a harbor within the land, they took one of the three 
men out of her to go along with them, and left only two in 
the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on 
the shore. 

This was what I wished for, and immediately leaving 
Friday and the captain’s mate to their business, I took the 
rest with me, and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we 
surprised the two men before they were aware, — one of them 
lying on shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow 
on shore was between sleeping and waking, and, going to 
start up, the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him and 
knocked him down, and then called out to him in the boat 
to yield, or he was a dead man. 

There needed very few arguments to persuade a single 
man to yield when he saw five men upon him, and his com- 
rade knocked down. Besides, this was, it seems, one of the 
three who was not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the 
crew, and therefore was easily persuaded, not only to yield, 
but afterwards to join very sincerely with us. 

In the meantime, Friday and the captain’s mate so well 
managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, 
by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and 
from one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired 
them, but left them where they were very sure they could 
not reach back to the boat before it was dark ; and, indeed, 
they were heartily tired themselves, also, by the time they 
came back to us. 

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in 
the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work 
with them. 

It was several hours after Friday came back to me before 


250 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


they came back to their boat; and we could hear the fore- 
most of them, long before they came quite up, calling to 
those behind to come along, and could also hear them 
answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and 
not able to come any faster, which was very welcome news 
to us. 

At length they came up to the boat; but ’tis impossible to 
express their confusion when they found the boat fast 
aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men 
gone. We could hear them call to one another in a most 
lamentable manner, telling one another they were gotten into 
an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it, 
and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils 
and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and 
devoured. 

They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by 
their names a great many times, but no answer. After 
some time, we could see them, by the little light there was, 
run about wringing their hands like men in despair; and 
that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to 
rest themselves, then come ashore again, and walk about 
again, and so the same thing over again. 

My men would fain have me give them leave to fall upon 
them at once in the dark; but I was willing to take them at 
some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them 
as I could, and especially I was unwilling to hazard the kill- 
ing any of our own men, knowing the others were very well 
armed. I resolved to wait to see if they did not separate, 
and therefore to make sure of them. I drew my ambuscade 
nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon 
their hands and feet as close to the ground as they could, 
that they might not be discovered, and get as near them as 
they could possibly, before they offered to fire. 

They had not been long in that posture, but that the 
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, 
and had now shown himself the most dejected and dispirited 
of all the rest, came walking towards them with two more of 
their crew; the captain was so eager, as having this princi- 
pal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 5i 

patience to let him come so near, as to be sure of him, for 
they only heard his tongue before. But when they came 
nearer, the captain and Friday starting up on their feet, let 
fly at them. 

The boatswain was killed upon the spot, the next man 
was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did 
not die till an hour or two after, and the third run for it. 

At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my 
whole army, which was now eight men, viz: myself, gene- 
ralissimo, Friday, my lieutenant-general, the captain and his 
two men, and the three prisoners of war, whom we had trusted 
with arms. 

We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could 
not see our number; and I made the man we had left in the 
boat, who was now one of us, call to them by name, to try if 
I could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce 
them to terms, which fell out just as we desired. For indeed 
it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they 
would be very willing to capitulate ; so he calls out, as loud 
as he could, to one of them, “Tom Smith, Tom Smith!” 
Tom Smith answered immediately, “Who’s that, Robin- 
son ? ” for it seems he knew his voice. The other answered, 
“Ay, ay; for God’s sake, Tom Smith, throw down your 
arms and yield, or you are all dead men this moment.” 

“Who must we yield to? Where are they?” said Smith 
again. “ Here they are,” said he, “ here ’ s our captain and 
fifty men with him, have been hunting you this two hours; 
the boatswain is killed, Will Frye is wounded, and I am a 
prisoner, and if you do not yield, you are all lost.” 

“ Will they give us quarter then ? ” said Tom Smith, “ and 
we will yield?” “ I ’ll go and ask, if you promise to yield,” 
said Robinson. So he asked the captain, and the captain 
then called himself out, “You Smith, you know my voice, if 
you lay down your arms immediately, and submit, you shall 
have your lives, all but Will Atkins.” 

Upon this, Will Atkins cried out, “For God’s sake, cap- 
tain, give me quarter ; what have I done ? They have all 
been as bad as I.” Which, by the way, was not true 
neither; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man 


252 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied, and 
used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him 
injurious language. However, the captain told him he must 
lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor’s 
mercy, by which he meant me ; for they all called me 
governor. 

In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their 
lives ; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them, and 
two more, who bound them all ; and then my great army of 
fifty men, which particularly with those three, were all but 
eight, came up and seized upon them all, and upon their 
boat, only that I kept myself and one more out of sight, for 
reasons of state. 

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing 
the ship ; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to 
parley with them. He expostulated with them upon the vil- 
lainy of their practices with him, and at length upon the 
farther wickedness of their design, and how certainly it 
must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and 
perhaps to the gallows. 

They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for 
their lives ; as for that, he told them they were none of his 
prisoners, but the commander of the island; that they 
thought they had set him on shore in a barren, uninhabited 
island, but it had pleased God so to direct them, that the 
island was inhabited, and that the governor was an English- 
man ; that he might hang them all there, if he pleased ; but 
as he had given them all quarter, he supposed he would 
send them to England to be dealt with there, as justice 
required, except Atkins, who, he was commanded by the 
governor, to advise to prepare for death : for that he would 
be hanged in the morning. 

Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its 
desired effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the 
captain to intercede with the governor for his life ; and all 
the rest begged of him, for God’s sake, that they might not 
be sent to England. 

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance 
was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 53 


these fellows in, to be hearty in getting possession of the 
ship ; so, I retired in the dark from them, that they might 
not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the 
captain to me. When I called, as at a good distance, one 
of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the 
captain, “ Captain, the commander calls for you ; ” and pres- 
ently the captain replied, “Tell his excellency I am just 
a coming.” This more perfectly amused them ; and they all 
believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men. 

Upon the captain’s coming to me, I told him my project 
for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and 
resolved to put it in execution the next morning. 

But in order to execute it with more art, and secure of 
success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that 
he should go and take Atkins and two more of the worst of 
them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others 
lay. This was committed to Friday, and the two men who 
came on shore with the captain. 

They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison ; and it 
was indeed, a dismal place, especially to men in their 
condition. 

The other I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which 
I have given a full description ; and as it was fenced in, and 
they pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering 
they were upon their behavior. 

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to 
enter into a parley with them. In a word, to try them, and 
tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or not 
to go on board and surprise the ship. He talked to them of 
the injury done him, of the condition they were brought to; 
and that though the governor had given them quarter for 
their lives, as to the present action, yet that if they were sent 
to England, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; 
but that if they would join in so just an attempt as to 
recover the ship, he would have the governor’s engagement 
for their pardon. 

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be 
accepted by men in their condition ; they fell down on their 
knees to the captain, and promised, with the deepest impre- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


254 

cations, that they would be faithful to him to the last drop, 
and that they should owe their lives to him, and would go 
with him all over the world, that they would own him for a 
father to them as long as they lived. 

“Well,” said the captain, “ I must go and tell the governor 
what you say, and see what I can do to bring him to consent 
to it.” So he brought me an account of the temper he found 
them in ; and that he verily believed they would be faithful. 

However, that we might be very secure, I told him he 
should go back again, and choose out five of them, and tell 
them they might see that he did not want men, that he 
would take out five of them to be his assistants, and that 
the governor would keep the other two, and the three that 
were sent prisoners to the castle (my cave) as hostages, for 
the fidelity of those five ; and that if they proved unfaithful 
in the execution, the five hostages should be hanged in 
chains alive upon the shore. 

This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor 
was in earnest. However, they had no way left them, but to 
accept it ; and it was now the business of the prisoners, as 
much as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their 
duty. 

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition : 
First, the captain, his mate, and passenger. Second, then 
the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom having their 
characters from the captain, I had given their liberty, and 
trusted them with arms. Third, the other two who I had 
kept till now in my apartment, pinioned, but upon the cap- 
tain’s motion, had now released. Fourth, the single man 
taken in the boat. Fifth, these five released at last. So 
that they were thirteen in all, besides five we kept prisoners 
in the cave, for hostages. 

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these 
hands on board the ship; for as for me and my man Friday, 
I did not think it was proper for us to stir, having seven men 
left behind ; and it was employment enough for us to keep 
them asunder, and supply them with victuals. 

As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, 
but Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 255 

necessaries, and I made the other two carry provisions to a 
certain distance, where Friday was to take it. 

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with 
the captain, who told them I was the person the governor 
had ordered to look after them, and that it was the gov- 
ernor’s pleasure they should not stir any where, but by my 
direction ; that if they did, they should be fetched into the 
castle and be laid in irons ; so that as we never suffered them 
to see me as governor, so I now appeared as another person, 
and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the 
like, upon all occasions. 

The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to fur- 
nish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. 
He made his passenger captain of one, with four other men; 
and himself, and his mate, and six more went in the other, 
and they contrived their business very well, for they came 
up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came 
within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and 
tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but 
that it was a long time before they had found them, and the 
like, holding them in a chat till they came to the ship’s side; 
when the captain and the mate, entering first with their 
arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and car- 
penter, with the butt-end of their muskets ; being very faith- 
fully seconded by their men, they secured all the rest that 
were upon the main and quarter-decks, and began to fasten 
the hatches to keep them down who were below, when the 
other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured 
the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into 
the cook-room, making three men theyfound there prisoners. 

When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain 
ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round- 
house, where the new rebel captain lay, and having taken 
the alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy, had 
gotten firearms in their hands ; and when the mate, with a 
crow, split open the door, the new captain and his men fired 
boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket- 
ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the 
men, but killed nobody. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


256 

The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the 
round-house, wounded as he was, and, with his pistol, shot 
the new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his 
mouth, and coming out again behind one of his ears, so that 
he never spoke a word ; upon which the rest yielded, and 
the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost. 

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain 
ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed 
upon with me, to give me notice of his success, which, 
you may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat 
watching upon the shore for it until near two of the clock in 
the morning. 

Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; 
and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very 
sound, till I was something surprised with the noise of a 
gun ; and, presently starting up, I heard a man call me by 
the name of “ Governor ! Governor ! ” And, presently, I 
knew the captain’s voice, when, climbing up to the top of 
the hill, there he stood, and, pointing to the ship, he em- 
braced me in his arms. “ My dear friend and deliverer,” 
said he, “ there’s your ship ; for she is all yours, and so are 
we, and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes to the ship, 
and there she rode, within little more than half a mile of the 
shore ; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they 
were masters of her, and, the weather being fair, had brought 
her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little creek; 
and, the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace 
in near the place where I at first landed my rafts, and so 
landed just at my door. 

I was, at first, ready to sink down with the surprise ; for 
I saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all 
things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away, 
whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was 
not able to answer him one word ; but as he had taken me 
in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to 
the ground. 

He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle 
out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he 
had brought on purpose for me. After I had drank it, I sat 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 57 


down upon the ground; and though it brought me to 
myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word 
to him. 

All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstacy as 
I, only not under any surprise, as I was ; and he said a 
thousand kind, tender things to me, to compose me and 
to bring me to myself ; but such was the flood of joy in my 
breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion. At last it 
broke out into tears, and, in a little while after, I recovered 
my speech. 

Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, 
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as 
a man sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole 
transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such 
things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret 
hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence 
that the eyes of an Infinite Power could search into the 
remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable 
whenever he pleased. 

I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to 
Heaven ; and what heart could forbear to bless Him, who 
had not only, in a miraculous manner, provided for one in 
such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from 
whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to 
proceed ? 

When we had talked awhile, the captain told me he had 
brought me some little refreshment, such as the ship af- 
forded, and such as the wretches that had been so long his 
masters had not plundered him of. Upon this he called 
aloud to the boat, and bid his men bring the things ashore 
that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present, as 
if I had been one, not that was to be carried away along 
with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still, 
and they were to go without me. 

First he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent 
cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine ; the bottles 
held two quarts a-piece ; two pounds of excellent good tobac- 
co, twelve good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork, 
with a bag of peas, and about a hundred weight of biscuit. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


258 

He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag 
full of lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance 
of other things ; but, besides these, and what was a thousand 
times more useful to me, he brought me six clean new shirts, 
six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of 
shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a very good suit 
of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little : 
in a word, he clothed me from head to foot. 

It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may 
imagine, to one in my circumstances ; but never was any- 
thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and 
uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first 
putting on. 

After these ceremonies past, and after all his good things 
were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult 
what was to be done with the prisoners we had ; for it was 
worth considering, whether we might venture to take them 
away with us or no, especially two of them, whom we knew to 
be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree ; and the 
captain said he knew they were such rogues, that there was 
no obliging them, and if he did carry them away, it must be 
in irons, as malefactors to be delivered over to justice at the 
first English colony he could come at ; and I found that the 
captain himself was very anxious about it. 

Upon this, I told him, that if he desired it, I dared under- 
take to bring the two men he spoke of, to make it their own 
request that he should leave them upon the island. “ I 
should be very glad of that,” said the captain, “with all my 
heart.” 

“Well,” said I, “I will send for them up, and t^lk with 
them for you;” so I caused Friday and the two hostages, 
for they were now discharged, their comrades having per- 
formed their promise ; I said I caused them to go to the 
cave, and bring up the five men pinioned, as they were, to 
the bower, and keep them there till I came. 

After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, 
and now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the 
captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me; 
and I told them I had had a full account of their villainous 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


259 


behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with 
the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies, 
but that Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, 
and that they were fallen into the pit which they had digged 
for others. 

I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been 
seized ; that she lay now in the road ; and they might see by- 
and-by, that their new captain had received the reward of his 
villany ; for that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm. 

That as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say, 
why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fdct, 
as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority 
to do. 

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they 
had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the 
captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implqred 
my mercy ; but I told them, I knew not what mercy to show 
them; for, as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island 
with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to 
go for England ; and as for the captain, he could not carry 
them to England, other than as prisoners in irons to be 
tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship ; the con- 
sequence of which, they must needs know, would be the 
gallows ; so that I could not tell which was best for them, 
unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if 
they desired that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; 
I had some inclination to give them their lives, if they 
thought they could shift on shore. 

They seemed very thankful for it, said they would much 
rather venture to stay there, than to be carried to England 
to be hanged ; so I left it on that issue. 

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of 
it, as if he durst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed 
a little angry with the captain, and told him that they were 
my prisoners, not his ; and that, seeing I had offered them 
so much favor, I would be as good as my word ; and that if 
he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set them at 
liberty as I found them ; and if he did not like it, he might 
take them again if he could catch them. 


260 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly 
set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods to 
the place whence they came, and I would leave them some 
firearms, some ammunition, and some directions how they 
should live very well, if they thought fit. 

Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship, but told 
the captain that I would stay that night to prepare my 
things ; and desired him to go on board, in the meantime, 
and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore 
the next day for me; ordering him, in the meantime, to 
cause the new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the 
yard-arm, that these men might see him. 

When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me 
to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with 
them of their circumstances. I told them I thought they 
had made a right choice ; that if the captain carried them 
away, they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the 
new captain, hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told 
them they had nothing less to expect. 

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I 
then told them I would let them into the story of my living 
there, and put them into the way of making it easier to them. 
Accordingly, I gave them the whole history of the place, 
and of my coming to it ; shewed them my fortifications, the 
way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes ; 
and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. 
I told them the story, also, of the sixteen Spaniards that 
were to be expected ; for whom I left a letter, and made 
them promise to treat them in common with themselves. 

I left them my fire-arms, viz: Five muskets, three fowling- 
pieces, and three swords. I had above a barrel and half of 
powder left; for after the first year or two, I used but little, 
and wasted none. I gave them a description of the way I 
managed the goats, and directions to milk and fatten them, 
and to make both butter and cheese. 

In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and 
I told them I would prevail with the captain to leave them 
two barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-seeds, 
which, I told them, I would have been very glad of ; also I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


261 


gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought 
me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them. 

Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went 
on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but 
did not weigh that night. The next morning early, two of 
the five men came swimming to the ship’s side, and, making 
a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to 
be taken into the ship, for God’s sake, for they should be 
murdered, and begged the captain to take them on board, 
though he hanged them immediately. 

Upon this, the captain pretended to have no power with- 
out me ; but, after some difficulty, and after their solemn 
promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and 
were some time after soundly whipped and pickled ; after 
which they proved very honest and quiet fellows. 

Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the 
tide being up, with the things promised to the men, to 
which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests 
and clothes to be added; which they took, and were very 
thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling them that 
if it lay in my way to send any vessel to take them in, I 
would not forget them. 

When I took leave of this island, I carried on board for 
relics the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, 
and my parrot; also I forgot not to take the money I 
formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long use- 
less, that it was grown rusty, or tarnished, and could hardly 
pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and han- 
dled ; as also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish 
ship. 

And thus I left the island the 19th of December, as I 
found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had 
been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nine- 
teen days ; being delivered from this second captivity, the 
same day of the month that I first made my escape in the 
Barco-Longo, from among the Moors of Sallee. 

In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England, 
the nth of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-and- 
five years absent. 


262 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to 
all the world, as if I had never been known there. My 
benefactor and faithful steward, who I had left in trust with 
my money, was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the 
world; was become a widow the second time, and very low 
in the world. I made her easy as to what she owed me, 
assuring her I would give her no trouble ; but, on the con- 
trary, in gratitude to her former care and faithfulness to me, 
I relieved her, as my little stock would afford, which at that 
time would indeed allow me to do but little for her. But I 
assured her, I would never forget her former kindness to 
me; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to help her, 
as shall be observed in its place. 

I went down afterwards into Yorkshire ; but my father 
was dead, and my mother, and all the family extinct, except 
that I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of 
my brothers. And as I had been long ago given over for 
dead, there had been no provision made for me ; so that, in 
a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me, and that 
little money I had would not do much for me as to settling 
in the world. 

I met- with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not 
expect; and this was, that the master of the ship, who I had 
so happily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship 
and cargo, having given a very handsome account to the 
owners, of the manner how I had saved the lives of the 
men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and some 
other merchants concerned, and all together made me a very 
handsome compliment upon the subject, and a present of 
almost two hundred pounds sterling. 

But after making several reflections upon the circum- 
stances of my life, and how little way this would go towards 
settling me in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see 
if I might not come by some information of the state of my 
plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become of my 
partner, who I had reason to suppose had some years now 
given me over for dead. 

With this view, I took shipping for Lisbon, where I 
arrived in April following; my man Friday accompanying 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 263 

me very honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most 
faithful servant upon all occasions. 

When I came to Lisbon, I found out by enquiry, and to 
my particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of 
the ship, who first took me up at sea, off of the shore 
of Africa. He was now grown old, and had left off the 
sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, 
into his ship; and who still used the Brazil trade. The old 
man did not know me, and, indeed, I hardly knew him, 
but I soon brought him to my remembrance, and as soon 
brought myself to his remembrance, when I told him who 
I was. 

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaint- 
ance, I enquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and 
my partner. The old man told me he had not been in the 
Brazils for about nine years, but that he could assure me 
that when he came away my partner was living, but the 
trustees, who I had joined with him to take cognizance of 
my part, were both dead; that, however, he believed that I 
would have a very good account of the improvement of the 
plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my being 
cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the 
account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the 
procurator fiscal, who had appropriated it in case I never 
came to claim it, — one-third to the king, and two-thirds to 
the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the 
benefit of the poor and for the conversion of the Indians to 
the Catholic faith. But that if I appeared, or any one for 
me, to claim the inheritance, it should be restored; only that 
the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to 
charitable uses, could not be restored. But he assured me 
that the Steward of the King’s Revenue (from lands) and 
the Provedidore, or Steward of the Monastery, had taken 
great care, all along, that the incumbent, — that is to say, my 
partner, gave, every year, a faithful account of the produce, 
of which they received duly my moiety. 

I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement 
he had brought the plantation ; and whether he thought it 
might be worth lQoking after; or, whether, on my going 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


264 

thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my possessing 
my just right in the moiety. 

He tolcl me he could not tell exactly to what degree the 
plantation was improved ; but this he knew, that my partner 
was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one-half of 
it ; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard 
that the king’s third of my part, which was, it seems, granted 
away to some other monastery, or religious house, amounted 
to above 200 moidores a year ; that, as to my being restored 
to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made 
of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my 
name being also enrolled in the register of the country; also 
he told me, that the survivors of my two trustees were very 
fair, honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed I 
would not only have their assistance for putting me in pos- 
session, but would find a very considerable sum of money in 
their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm 
while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up 
as above, which, as he remembered, was for about twelve 
years. 

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this 
account, and enquired of the old captain, how it came to 
pass that the trustees should thus dispose my effects, when 
he knew that I had made my will, and had made him (the 
Portuguese captain), my universal heir, etc. 

He told me that was true ; but as there was no proof of 
my being dead, he could not act as executor until some 
certain account should come of my death, and that, besides, 
he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote ; 
that it was true he had registered my will, and put in his 
claim ; and could he have given any account of my being 
dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken 
possesion of the ingenio (as they called the sugar-house), and 
had given his son, who was now at the Brazils, order to 
do it. 

“ But,” said the old man, “ I have one piece of news to tell 
you which, perhaps, may not be so acceptable to you as the 
rest ; and that is, that believing you were lost, and all the 
world believing so, also, your partner and trustees did offer 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


265 

to account to me, in your name, for six or eight of the first 
years of profits, which I received ; but there being, at that 
time,” said he, “great disbursements for increasing the 
,works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not 
amount to near so much as afterwards it produced. How- 
ever,” said the old man, “ I shall give you a true account of 
what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of it.” 

After a few days’ further conference with this ancient 
friend, he brought me an account of the six first years’ 
income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the mer- 
chant’s trustees, being always delivered in goods, viz: 
tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, 
etc., which is the consequence of a sugar work ; and 1 found 
by this account that every year the income considerably 
increased ; but, as above, the disbursement being large, the 
sum at first was small; however, the old man let me see 
that he was debtor to me 470 moidores of gold, besides 
sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco 
which were lost in his ship ; he having been shipwrecked 
coming home to Lisbon about eleven years after my leaving 
the place. 

The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, 
and how he had been obliged to make use of my money to 
recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship. “ How- 
ever, my old friend,” said he, “ you shall not want a supply in 
your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you shall be 
fully satisfied.” 

Upon this, he pulled out an old pouch, and gave me 160 
Portugal moidores in gold; and giving me the writing of his 
title to the ship, which his son was gone to the Brazils in, 
of which he was a quarter-part owner, and his son another, 
he put them both into my hands for security of the rest. 

I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of 
the poor man, to be able to bear this ; and remembering 
what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea, 
and how generously he had used me on all occasions, and 
particularly, how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could 
hardly refrain from weeping at what he said to me ; therefore, 
first, I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare 


266 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


so much money at that time, and if it would not straighten 
him? He told me, he could not say but it might straighten 
him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might 
want it more than he. 

Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I 
could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke ; in short, I 
took ioo of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to 
give him a receipt for them, then I returned him the rest, 
and told him, if ever I had possession of the plantation, I 
would return the other to him also, as indeed I afterwards 
did; and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son’s 
ship, I would not take it by any means ; but that if I wanted 
the money, I found he was honest enough to pay me ; and if 
I did not, but came to receive what he gave me reason to 
expect, I would never have a penny more from him. 

When this was passed, the old man began to ask me, if he 
should put me into a method to make my claim to my plan- 
tation? I told him, I thought to go over to it myself. He 
said I might do so if I pleased ; but that if I did not, there 
were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to 
appropriate the profits to my use ; and as there were ships 
in the river of Lisbon, just ready to go away to Brazil, he 
made me enter my name in a public register, with his affida- 
vit, affirming upon oath that I was alive, and that I was the 
same person who took up the land for the planting the said 
plantation at first. 

This being regularly attested by a notary, and a procura- 
tion affixed, he directed me to send it with a letter of his 
writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place, and 
then proposed my staying with him till an account came of 
the return. 

Never anything was more honorable than the proceedings 
upon this procuration ; for in less than seven months I re- 
ceived a large packet from the survivors of my trustees the 
merchants, for whose account I went to sea, in which were 
the following particular letters and papers enclosed. 

First, There was the accouut current of the produce of 
my farm or plantation, from the year when their fathers 
had balanced with my old Portugal captain, being for six 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 267 

years. The balance appeared to be 1,174 moidores in my 
favor. 

Secondly, There was the account of four years more while 
they kept the effects in their hands, before the government 
claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person 
not to be found, which they call civil death; and the balance 
of this, the value of the plantation increasing, amounted to 
38,892 cruisadoes, which made 3,241 moidores. 

Thirdly, There was the prior of the Augustine’s account, 
who had received the profits for above fourteen years; but 
not being to account for what was disposed to the hospital, 
very honestly declared he had 872 moidores not distributed, 
which he acknowledged to my account. As to the king’s 
part, that refunded nothing. 

There was a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me very 
affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account 
how the estate was improved, and what it produced a year, 
with a particular of the number of squares or acres that it 
contained ; how planted, how many slaves there were upon 
it, and making two-and-twenty crosses for blessings, told 
me he had said so many Ave Maria's to thank the blessed 
Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to 
come over and take possession of my own; and in the 
meantime, to give him orders to whom he should deliver 
my effects, if I did not come myself; concluding with a 
hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family ; and 
sent me, as a present, seven fine leopards’ skins, which he 
had, it seems, received from Africa, by some other ship 
which he had sent thither, and who, it seems, had made a 
better voyage than I. He sent me also, five chests of 
excellent sweetmeats, and an hundred pieces of gold un- 
coined, not quite so large as moidores. 

By the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped me 
1,200 chests of sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the rest of 
the whole account in gold. 

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job 
was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express 
the flutterings of my very heart, when I looked over these 
letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me; 


268 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


for as the Brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships 
which brought my letters, brought my goods ; and the 
effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my 
hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had 
not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, 1 believe the 
sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had died 
upon the spot. 

Nay, after that, I continued very ill, and was so some 
hours, till a physician being sent for, and something of the 
real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be 
let blood ; after which, I had relief, and grew well. But I 
verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent given in 
that manner to the spirits, I should have died. 

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above ^5,000 sterling 
in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the 
Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an 
estate of lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a con- 
dition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to 
compose myself for the enjoyment of it. 

The first thing I did, was to recompense my original ben- 
efactor, my good old captain, who had been first charitable 
to me in my distress, kind to me in my beginning, and 
honest to me at the end. I showed him all that was sent 
me. I told him, that next to the Providence of Heaven, 
which disposes all things, it was owing to him ; and that it 
now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a hundred- 
fold. So I first returned to him the hundred moidores I 
had received of him, then I sent for a notary, and caused 
him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470 
moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me in the 
fullest and firmest manner possible; after which, I caused 
a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my 
receiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appoint- 
ing my partner to account to him and make the returns by 
the usual fleets to him in my name ; and a clause in the 
end, being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him, during his 
life, out of the effects, and 50 moidores a year to his son 
after him, for his life ; and thus I requited my old man. 

I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


269 

and what to do with the estate that Providence had thus put 
into my hands ; and indeed I had more care upon my head 
now than I had in my silent state of life in the island, where 
I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but what 
I wanted ; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and 
my business was how to secure it. I had ne’er a cave now 
to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without 
lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnished before any- 
body would meddle with it. On the contrary, I knew not 
where to put it, or who to trust with it. My old patron, the 
captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge I 
had. 

In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to 
summon me thither, but now I could not tell how to think 
of going thither, till I had settled my affairs, and left my 
effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought of 
my old friend the widow, who I knew was honest, and would 
be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and 
for aught I knew, might be in debt ; so that in a word, I had 
no way but to go back to England myself, and take my 
effects with me. 

It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this ; 
and therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and 
to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, so 
I began to think of my poor widow, whose husband had been 
my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her power, my 
faithful steward and instructor. So, the first thing I did, I 
got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in 
London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and 
carry her in money, an hundred pounds from me, and to talk 
with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her she 
should, if I lived, have a further supply. At the same time 
I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them an hun- 
dred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very 
good circumstances ; one having been married, and left a 
widow, and the other having a husband not so kind to her 
as he should be. 

But among all my relations, or acquaintances, I could not 
yet pitch upon one, to whom I dared commit the gross of 


2JO 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


my stock, that I might go away to the Brazils, and leave 
things safe behind me ; and this greatly perplexed me. 

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils, and have 
settled myself there ; for I was, as it were, naturalized to the 
place; but I had some little scruples in my mind about 
religion, which insensibly drew me back, of which I shall 
say more presently. However, it was not religion that kept 
me from going there for the present; and as I had made no 
scruples of being openly of the religion of the country, all 
the while I was among them, so neither did I yet ; only that 
now and then having of late thought more of it (than for- 
merly), when I began to think of living and dying among 
them, I began to regret my having professed myself a Papist, 
and thought it might not be the best religion to die with. 

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept 
me from going to the Brazils, but that really I did not know 
with whom to leave my effects behind me ; so I resolved at 
last to go to England with it, where, if I arrived, I concluded 
I should make some acquaintance, or find some relations 
that would be faithful to me; and accordingly I prepared to 
go for England with all my wealth. 

In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the 
Brazil fleet being just going away) resolved to give answers 
suitable to the just and faithful account of things I had from 
thence ; and, first, to the prior of St. Augustine I wrote a let- 
ter full of thanks for their just dealings, and the offer of the 
872 moidores, which was undisposed of, which I desired 
might be given 500 to the monastery, and 372 to the poor, as 
the prior should direct, desiring the good padre’s prayers for 
me, and the like. 

I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all 
the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty 
called for ; as for sending them any present, they were far 
above having any occasion of it. 

Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry 
in the improving the plantation, and his integrity in increas- 
ing the stock of the works, giving him instructions for his 
future government of my part, according to the powers I 
had left with my old patron, to whom I desired him to send 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


271 


whatever became due to me, until he should hear from me 
more particularly; assuring him that it was my intention, 
not only to come to him, but to settle myself there for the 
remainder of my life. To this I added a very handsome 
present of some Italiaa silks for his wife and two daughters, 
for such the captain’s son informed me he had ; with two 
pieces of fine English broadcloth, the best I could get in 
Lisbon, five pieces of black baize, and some Flanders lace 
of a good value. 

Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned 
all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty 
was which way to go to England. I had been accustomed 
enough to the sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to going 
to England by sea at that time ; and though I could give no 
reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, 
that though I had once shipped my baggage, in order to go, 
yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three 
times. 

It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this 
might be some of the reason. But let no man slight the 
strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such 
moment. Two of the ships which I had singled out to go 
in, I mean, more particularly singled out than any other; 
that is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on 
board, and in the other to have agreed with the captain; I 
say, two of these ships miscarried, viz : one was taken by 
the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the start near 
Torbay, and all the people drowned except three. So that 
in either of those vessels I had been made miserable ; and 
in which most, it was hard to say, 

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, 
to whom I communicated everything, pressed me earnestly 
not to go by sea, but either to go by land to the Groyne, 
and cross over the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from whence 
it was but an easy and safe journey by land to Paris, and so 
to Calais and Dover; or, to go up to Madrid, and so all the 
way by land through France. 

In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going by sea 
at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel 


272 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


all the way by land, which, as I was not in haste, and did not 
value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way. And to 
make it more so, my old captain brought an English gentle- 
man, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to 
travel with me. After which, we picked up two more Eng- 
lish merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, 
the last going to Paris only ; so that we were in all six of 
us, and five servants ; the two merchants and the two Portu- 
guese contenting themselves with one servant between two, 
to save the charge. And, as for me, I got an English sailor 
to travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who 
was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the 
place of a servant on the road. 

In this manner, I set out from Lisbon; and our company 
being all very well mounted and armed, we made a little 
troop, whereof they did me the honor to call me captain, as 
well because I was the oldest man, as because I had two 
servants, and indeed, was the original of the whole journey. 

As I have troubled you with none of my sea-journals, so 
I shall trouble you now with none of my land-journals ; but 
some adventures that happened to us, on this tedious and 
difficult journey, I must not omit. 

When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to 
Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court of 
Spain, and to see what was worth observing, but, it being 
the latter part of the summer, we hastened away and set out 
from Madrid about the middle of October. But when we 
came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed at several 
towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was 
fallen on the French side of the mountains, that several 
travelers were obliged to come back to Pampeluna after 
having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on. 

When we came to Pampeluna itself we found it so indeed; 
and to me, that had been always used to a hot climate, and, 
indeed, to countries where we could scarce bear any clothes 
on, the cold was insufferable ; nor, indeed, was it more pain- 
ful than it was surprising to come but ten days before out of 
the old Castile, where the weather was not only warm, but 
very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


273 


mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, 
and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and 
toes. 

Poor Friday was really frighted, when he saw the moun- 
tains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he 
had never seen or felt before in his life. 

To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it con- 
tinued snowing with so much violence and so long, that the 
people said winter was come before its time, and the roads 
which were difficult before, were now quite impassable : for, 
in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to 
travel ; and being not hard frozen, as is the case in northern 
countries, there was no going without danger of being 
buried alive at every step. We stayed no less than twenty 
days at Pampeluna, when, seeing the winter coming on and 
no likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest win- 
ter all over Europe that had been known in the memory of 
man, I proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia, 
and there take shipping for Bordeaux, which was a very 
little voyage. 

But while we were considering this, there came in four 
French gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French 
side of the passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out 
a guide, who traversing the country near the head of Lan- 
guedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways 
that they were not much incommoded with the snow ; and 
where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was 
frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. 

We sent for this guide, who told us he would undertake to 
carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow, pro- 
vided we were armed sufficiently to protect us from wild 
beasts ; for he said “ Upon these great snows, it was fre- 
quent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the 
mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground 
being covered with snow.” We told him we were well 
enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he would 
insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which, we were 
told, we were in most danger from, especially on the French 
side of the mountains. 


274 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way 
that we were to go ; so we readily agreed to follow him, as did 
also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some 
French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, 
and were obliged to come back again. 

Accordingly, we all set out from Pampeluna, with our 
guide, on the fifteenth of November; and, indeed, I was 
surprised when, instead of going forward, he came directly 
back with us, on the same road that we came from Madrid, 
above twenty miles ; when, having passed two rivers, and 
come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm 
climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow 
to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to his left, he ap- 
proached the mountains another way; and, though it is true 
the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so 
many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding 
ways, that we insensibly passed the height of the mountains 
without being much encumbered with the snow ; and all on 
a sudden he showed us the pleasant, fruitful provinces of 
Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though 
indeed it was at a great distance, and we had some rough 
way to pass yet. 

We were a little uneasy however, when we found it 
snowed one whole day and a night, so fast that we could 
not travel ; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past 
it all. We found indeed, that we began to descend every 
day, and to come more north than before ; and so, depending 
upon our guide, we went on. 

It was about two hours before night, when our guide 
being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed 
three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a 
hollow way, adjoining to a thick wood. Two of the wolves 
flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile before us, 
he had been devoured indeed, before we could have helped 
him. One of them fastened upon his horse, and the other 
attacked the man with that violence that he had not time, or 
not presence of mind enough to draw his pistol, but hallooed 
and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday being 
next to me, I bade him ride up, and see what was the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


275 


matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the man, he 
hallooed as loud as t’other, “ O master ! O master ! ” but, like 
a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, and with his 
pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head. 

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Fri- 
day ; for he, having been used to that kind of creature in 
his country, had no fear upon him; but went close up to 
him, and shot him as above; whereas any of us would have 
fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps, either missed 
the wolf, or endangered shooting the man. 

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I, 
and indeed it alarmed all our company, when with the noise 
of Friday’s pistol, we heard on both sides the dismallest 
howling of wolves, and the noise redoubled by the echo of 
the mountains, that it was to us as if there had been a pro- 
digious multitude of them; and perhaps, indeed, there was 
not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions. 

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that 
had fastened upon the horse, left him immediately, and fled ; 
having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of 
the bridle had stuck in his teeth ; so that he had not done 
him much hurt. The man indeed was most hurt; for the 
raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the 
other time a little above his knee ; and he was just as it 
were tumbling down by the disorder of his horse, when 
Friday came up and shot the wolf. 

It is easy to suppose, that at the noise of Friday’s pistol, 
we all mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the way 
(which was very difficult) would give us leave, to see what 
was the matter. As soon as we came clear of the trees, 
which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been the 
case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide; 
though we did not presently discern what kind of creature 
it was he had killed. 

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a 
surprising manner, as that which followed between Friday 
and the bear, which gave us all (though at first we were sur- 
prised and afraid for him) the greatest diversion imaginable. 
As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


276 

as the wolf does, who is swift and light ; so he has two par- 
ticular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions. 
First, as to men, who are not his proper prey. I say, not his 
proper prey ; because, though I cannot say what excessive 
hunger might do, which was now their case, the ground 
being all covered with snow ; but as to men, he does not 
usually attempt them, unless they first attack him. On the 
contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don’t meddle 
with him, he won’t meddle with you ; but then, you must 
take care to be very civil to him and give him the road; for 
he is a very nice gentleman, he won’t go a step out of his 
way for a prince ; nay, if you are really afraid, your best 
way is to look another way, and keep going on ; for some- 
times, if you stop, and stand still, and look steadily at him, 
he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss anything 
at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit of a stick, 
as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront, and sets all 
his other business aside to pursue his revenge ; for he will 
have satisfaction in point of honor; that is his first quality. 
The next is, that if he be once affronted, he will never leave 
you, night or day, till he has his revenge ; but follows at a 
good round rate till he overtakes you. 

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we 
came up to him, he was helping him off from his horse, for 
the man was both hurt and frighted, and indeed, the last 
more than the first ; when, on the sudden, we spied the bear 
come out of the wood, and a vast monstrous one it was, the 
biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a little sur- 
prised when we saw him, but when Friday saw him, it was 
easy to see joy and courage in the fellow’s countenance. 
“O ! O! O!” said Friday, three times, pointing to him! 
“ O master ! you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with 
him ; me make you good laugh.” 

I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased. “You 
fool, you,” said I, “ he will eat you up.” “ Eatee me up ; 
eatee me up ! ” said Friday, twice over again ; “ me eatee him 
up. Me make you good laugh. You all stay here, me show 
you good laugh.” So down he sat, and got his boots off in 
a moment, and put on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 77 


shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket), gave my 
other servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew swift 
like the wind. 

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle 
with nobody, till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as 
if the bear could understand him : “ Hark ye, hark ye,” said 
Friday, “me speakee wit you.” We followed at a distance; 
for now being come down on the Gascoigne side of the moun- 
tains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country 
was plain and pretty open, though many trees scattered in it 
here and there. 

Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up 
with him quickly, and took up a great stone, and threw at 
him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more 
harm, than if he had thrown it against a wall. But it 
answered Friday’s end; for the rogue was so void of fear, 
that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show 
us some laugh as he called it. 

As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he turned 
about, and came after him, taking devilish long strides, and 
shuffling along at a strange rate, so as would have put a 
horse to a middling gallop. Away ran Friday, and took 
his course, as if he ran towards us for help ; so we all 
resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man, 
though I was angry at him heartily, for bringing the bear 
back upon us, when he was going about his own business 
another way; and especially I was angry that he had turned 
the bear upon us, and then ran away. And I called out, 
“You dog,” said I, “is this your making us laugh? Come 
away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature-” 
He heard me, and cried out, “No shoot! no shoot! stand 
still, you get much laugh.” And as the nimble creature ran 
two feet for the beast’s one, he turned on a sudden, on one 
side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he 
beckoned to us to follow, and doubling his pace, he got 
nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, 
at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. 

The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a dis- 
tance. The first thing he did, he stopped at the gup, smelt. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


278 

to it, but let it lay, and up he scrambles into the tree, climb- 
ing like a cat, though so monstrously heavy. I was amazed 
at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my 
life see anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up 
the tree, we all rode nearer to him. 

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to 
the small end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got 
about half way to him ; as soon as the bear got out to that 
part where the limb of the tree was weaker, “ Fla ! ” said he 
to us, ‘‘now you see me teachee the bear dance ; ” so he fella 
jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to 
totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see 
how he should get back; then indeed we did laugh heartily, 
but Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when he 
saw him stand still, he called out to him again, as if he had 
supposed the bear could speak English. “ What, you no 
come further? pray you come further; ” so he left jumping 
and shaking the trees, and the bear, just as if he had under- 
stood what he said, did come a little further, then he fell a 
jumping again, and the bear stopped again. 

We thought now was a good time to knock him on the 
head, and I called to Friday to stand still, and we would 
shoot the bear ; but he cried out earnestly, “ O pray ! O pray ! 
No shoot, me shoot by and then; ” he would have said, by- 
and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so 
much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing 
enough indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow 
would do ; for, first, we thought he depended upon shaking 
the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for 
that too ; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown 
down, but clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so 
that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and 
where the jest would be at last. 

But Friday put us out of doubt quickly; for, seeing the 
bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be per- 
suaded to come any further, “ Well, well,” said Friday, “you 
no come further, me go, me go ; you no come to me, me go 
come to you ; ” and upon this, he goes out to the smallest end 
of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


279 


gently let himself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he 
came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he 
ran to his gun, took it up, and stood still. 

“Well,” said I to him, “Friday, what will you do now? 
why don’t you shoot him?” “No shoot,” said Friday, “no 
yet, me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more 
laugh;” and indeed, so he did, as you will see presently; 
for, when the bear saw his enemy gone, he came back from 
the bough where he stood ; but did it mighty leisurely, look- 
ing behind him every step, and coming backward till he got 
into the body of the tree ; then, with the same hinder-end 
foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, 
and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely; at this 
juncture, and just before he could set his hind feet upon the 
ground, Friday stepped up close to him clapped the muzzle 
of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead as a stone. 

Then the rogue turned about, to see if we did not laugh, 
and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he fell a 
laughing himself very loud. “ So we kill bear in my country,” 
said Friday. “ So you kill them,” said I, “ why you have no 
guns.” “ No,” said he, “no gun, but shoot, great much long 
arrow.” 

This was indeed a good diversion to us ; but we were still 
in a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to 
do we hardly knew; the howling of wolves run much in my 
head; and indeed, except the noise I once heard on the 
shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I 
never heard anything that filled me with so much horror. 

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or 
else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have 
taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was 
worth saving; but we had three leagues to go, and our guide 
hastened us, so we left him, and went forward on our 
journey. 

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so 
deep and dangerous as on the mountains, and the ravenous 
creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the 
forest and plain country, pressed by hunger to seek for 
food ; and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, 


280 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


where they surprised the country people, killed a great 
many of their sheep and horses, and some people, too. 

We had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide 
told us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we 
should find them there ; and this was in a small plain, sur- 
rounded with woods on every side, and a long, narrow defile 
or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and 
then we should come to the village where we were to lodge. 

It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the 
first wood, and a little after sunset, when we came into the 
plain; we met with nothing in the first wood, except, that in 
a little plain within the wood, which was not above two fur- 
longs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full 
speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of 
some prey, and had it in view ; they took no notice of us, 
and were gone, and out of our sight in a few moments. 

Upon this, our guide, who by the way, was a wretched 
faint-hearted fellow, bade us keep in a ready posture ; for he 
believed there were more wolves a-coming. 

We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us, but we 
saw no more wolves, till we came through that wood, which 
was near half a league, and entered the plain ; as soon as we 
came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about 
us. The first object we met with was a dead horse ; that is 
to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and, at 
least, a dozen of them at work : we could not say eating of 
him, but picking of his bones rather, for they had eaten up 
all the flesh before. 

We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither 
did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly 
at them, but I would not suffer him by any means ; for I 
found we were like to have more business upon our hands 
than we were aware of. We were not gone half over the 
plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on 
our left, in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw 
about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a 
body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army 
drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what 
manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


281 


close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment. 
But that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that 
only every other man should fire, and that the others who 
had not fired should stand ready to give them a second vol- 
ley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us, and 
then those who had fired at first, should not pretend to load 
their fusees again, but stand ready with every one a pistol; 
for we were all armed with a fusee, and a pair of pistols 
each man. So we were by this method able to fire six vol- 
leys, half of us at a time. However, at present we had no 
necessity ; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made 
a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise, as with the 
fire. Four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several 
others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see 
by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately 
retreat; whereupon, remembering that 1 had been told that 
the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I 
caused all our company to halloo as loud as we could ; and 
I found the notion not altogether mistaken, for upon our 
shout they began to retire, and turn about. Then I ordered 
a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to 
gallop, and away they went to the woods. 

This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and, that 
we might lose no time, we kept going ; but we had but little 
more than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves into a 
readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on 
our left ; only that it was farther onward the same way we were 
to go. 

The night was coming on and the light began to be dusky, 
which made it worse on our side, but the noise increasing, we 
could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of 
those hellish creatures ; and on a sudden we perceived two 
or three troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind us and 
one on our front ; so that we seemed to be surrounded with 
them ; however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way 
forward as fast as we could make our horses go, which the 
way being very rough, was only a good large trot ; and in 
this manner we came in view of the entrance of a wood, 
through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain ; 


282 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane 
or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just 
at the entrance. 

On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard 
the noise of a gun, and, looking that way, out rushed a horse 
with a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and 
sixteen or seventeen wolves after him full speed ; indeed, the 
horse had the heels of them, but as we supposed that he 
could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but they would 
get up with him at last, and no question but they did. 

But here we had a most horrible sight, for riding up to the 
entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcass of 
another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous 
creatures ; and one of the men was no doubt the same who 
we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just by him, fired 
off ; but as to the man, his head, and the upper part of his 
body was eaten up. 

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to 
take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered 
about us presently in hopes of prey, and I verily believe 
there were three hundred of them. It happened very much 
to our advantage, that at the entrance into the wood, but a 
little way from it, there lay some large timber trees which 
had been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay 
there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those 
trees, and placing ourselves in a line, behind one long tree, 
I advised them all to light, and keeping that tree before us 
for a breast-work, to stand in a triangle or three fronts, 
enclosing our horses in the center. 

We did so, and it was well we did, for never was a more 
furious charge than the creatures made upon us in the place. 
They came upon us with a growling kind of a noise and 
mounted the piece of timber, which as I said was our 
breast-work, as if they were only rushing upon their prey ; 
and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned 
by their seeing our horses behind us, which was the prey 
they aimed at. I ordered our men to fire as before, every 
other man, and they took their aim so sure, that indeed they 
killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but there was 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 283 

a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on like 
devils, those behind pushing on those before. 

When we had fired our second volley of our fusees, we 
thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have 
gone off, but it was but a moment, for others came forward 
again; so we fired two volleys of our pistols and I believe in 
these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen of 
them and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again. 

I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called 
my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed, 
for with the greatest dexterity imaginable he had charged my 
fusee and his own, while we were engaged ; but as I said, I 
called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder I 
bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it 
be a large train ; he did so. and had but just time to get away 
when the wolves came up to it, and some were got upon it, 
when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder, 
set it on fire ; those that were upon the timber were scorched 
with it, and six or seven of them fell or rather jumped in 
among us with the force and fright of the fire ; we dispatched 
these in an instant, and the rest were so frightened with the 
light which the night, for it was now very near dark, made 
more errible, that they drew back a little. 

Upon which, I ordered our last pistol to be fired off in 
one volley, and after that we gave a shout; upon this, the 
wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon near 
twenty lame ones, whom we found struggling on the ground, 
and fell a cutting them with our swords, which answered 
our expectation ; for the crying and howling they made 
was better understood by their fellows, so that they all fled 
and left us. 

We had, first and last, killed about three score of them; 
and had it been daylight, we had killed many more. The 
field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again; 
for we had still near a league to go. We heard the ravenous 
creatures howl and yell in the woods, as we went, several 
times ; and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but 
the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain ; so in 
about an hour more, we came to the town, where we were 


284 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright, and all in 
arms; for it seems, that the night before, the wolves and 
some bears had broke into the village in the night, and put 
them in a terrible fright, and they were obliged to keep 
guard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve 
their cattle, and indeed their people. 

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs 
swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could 
go no farther ; so we were obliged to take a new guide 
there, and go to Toulouse, where we found a warm climate, 
a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, or any- 
thing like them ; but when we told our story at Toulouse, 
they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the 
great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when 
the snow lay on the ground ; but they enquired much what 
kind of a guide we had gotten, that would venture to bring 
us that way in such a severe season ; and told us, it was 
very strange we were not all devoured. When we told them 
how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the middle, they 
blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was fifty to one but 
we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of the horses 
which made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and 
that, at other times, they are really afraid of a gun ; but they 
being excessively hungry, and raging on that account, the 
eagerness to come at the horses had made them senseless 
of danger; and that if we had not, by the continued fire, 
and at last, by the stratagem of the train of powder, 
mastered them, it had been great odds but that we had been 
torn to pieces ; whereas, had we been content to have sat 
still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not 
have taken the horses for so much their own, when men 
were on their backs, as otherwise ; and withal they told us, 
that at last, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, 
they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that 
we might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms 
in our hands, and being so many in number. 

For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my 
life ; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring 
and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


285 

shelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost ; and as 
it was, I believe, I shall never care to cross those mountains 
again. I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues 
by sea, though I were sure to meet with a storm once a week. 

I have nothing uncommon to take notice of, in my pas- 
sage through France. Nothing but what other travelers 
have given an account of, with much more advantage than I 
can. I traveled from Toulouse to Paris, and without any 
considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, 
the fourteenth of January, after having had a severe cold 
season to travel in. 

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a 
little time all my newly discovered estate safe about me, the 
bills of exchange which I brought with me having been very 
currently paid. 

My principal guide and privy councellor, was my good 
ancient widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent 
her, thought no pains too much, or care too great, to employ 
for me ; and I trusted her so entirely with everything, that 
I was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects : and 
indeed, I was very happy from my beginning, and now to 
the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman, 

And now I began to think of leaving my effects with this 
woman, and setting out for Lisbon, and so to the Brazils; 
but now another scruple came in my way, and that was 
religion ; for as I had entertained some doubts about the 
Roman religion, even while I was abroad, especially in my 
state of solitude ; so I knew there was no going to the 
Brazils for me, much less going to settle there, unless I 
resolved to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, without 
any reserve : unless on the other hand, I resolved to be a 
sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion, and die 
in the Inquisition ; so I resolved to stay at home, and if I 
could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation. 

To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who 
in return gave me notice, that he could easily dispose of it 
there : but that if I thought fit to give him leave to offer it 
in my name to the two merchants, the survivors of my 
trustees, who lived in the Brazils, who must fully under- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


286 

stand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, and who 
I knew were very rich ; so that he believed they would be 
fond of buying it, — he did not doubt but I should make 
4,000 or 5,000 pieces of eight the more of it. 

Accordingly I agreed, gave him orders to offer it to them, 
and he did *so ; and in about eight months more, the ship 
being then returned, he sent me an account, that they had 
accepted the offer, and had remitted 33,000 pieces of eight 
to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon, to pay for it. 

In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form 
which they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who 
sent me bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces of eight to me, 
for the estate; reserving the payment of 100 moidores a 
year to him, the old man, during his life, and fifty moidores 
afterwards to his son for his life, which I had promised 
them, which the plantation was to make good as a rent- 
charge. And thus I have given the first part of a life of 
fortune and adventure, a life of Providence’s checker-work, 
and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show 
the like of : beginning foolishly, but closing much more 
happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to 
hope for. 

Any one would think that, in this state of complicated 
good fortune, I w r as past running any more hazards ; and so 
indeed I had been, if other circumstances had concurred, 
but I was inured to a wandering life, had no family, not 
many relations, nor, however rich, had I contracted much 
acquaintance ; and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, 
yet I could not keep the country out of my head, and had a 
great mind to be upon the wing again ; especially I could 
not resist the strong inclination I had to see my island, and 
to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there, and how 
the rogues I left there had used them. 

My true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from 
it, and so far prevailed with me, that for almost seven 
years she prevented my running abroad; during which time, 
I took my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers 
into my care. The eldest, having something cf his own, I 
bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


287 

addition to his estate, after my decease ; the other I put out 
to a captain of a ship, and after five years, finding him a 
sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a 
good ship, and sent him to sea ; and this young fellow after- 
wards drew me in, as old as I was, to further adventures 
myself. 

In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for first 
of all I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or 
dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one 
daughter. But my wife dying, and my nephew coming 
home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclina- 
tion to go abroad, and his importunity prevailed and engaged 
me to go in his ship, as a. private trader to the East Indies. 
This was in the year 1694. 

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw 
my successors, the Spaniards, had the whole story of their 
lives, and of the villains I left there. How at first they 
insulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, 
disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards 
were obliged to use violence with them, how they were sub* 
jected to the Spaniards, how honestly the Spaniards used 
them. A history, if it were entered into, as full of variety 
and wonderful accidents, as my own part ; particularly also, 
as to their battles with the Caribbeans, who landed several 
times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made 
upon the island itself ; and how five of them made an attempt 
upon the main land, and brought away eleven men and five 
women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about 
twenty young children on the island. 

Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all 
necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, 
clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I brought from 
England with me, viz : a carpenter and a smith. 

Besides this, I shared the island into parts with them, 
reserved to myself the property of the whole, but gave 
them such parts respectively as they agreed on; and having 
settled all things with them, and engaged them not to leave 
the place, I left them there. 

From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent 


288 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


a bark, which I bought there, with more people to the island, 
and in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven women, being 
such as I found proper for service, or for wives to such as 
would take them. As to the Englishmen, I promised them 
to send them some women from England, with a good cargo 
of necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting, 
which I afterwards performed. And the fellows proved 
very honest and diligent after they were mastered, and had 
their properties set apart for them. I sent them also from the 
Brazils, five cows, three of them being big with calf, some 
sheep, and some hogs, which, when I came again, were 
considerably increased. 

But all these things, with an account how three hundred 
Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined their planta- 
tions, and how they fought with that whole number twice, 
and were at first defeated, and three of them killed ; but at 
last a storm destroying their enemies’ canoes, they famished 
or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered 
the possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the 
island. 

All these things, with some very surprising incidents in 
some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I may 
perhaps give a farther account of hereafter. 


riNis. 


THE 


FARTHER ADVENTURES 


OF 


EOBI^SOlsr CKUSOE, &c. 



HAT homely proverb used on so many occasions in 


England, viz : That what is bred in the bone will not 


go out of the flesh, was never more verified than in 
the story of my life. Any one would think that, after thirty- 
five years affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances, 
which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after 
near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of 
all things, — grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed 
me to have had experience of every state of middle life, and 
to know which was most adapted to make a man completely 
happy. I say, after all this, any one would have thought 
that the native propensity to rambling, which I gave an 
account of in my first setting out into the world, to have 
been so predominant in my thoughts, should be worn out, 
the volatile part be fully evacuated, or at least condensed, 
and I might, at sixty-one years of age, have been a little 
inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life and 
fortune any more. 

Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures 
was taken away in me : for I had no fortune to make, I had 
nothing to seek. If I had gained ten thousand pounds, I had 
been no richer ; for I had already sufficient for me, and for 
those I had to leave it to ; and that I had was visibly in- 
creasing ; for, having no great family, I could not spend the 
income of what I had, unless I would set up for an expen- 
sive way of living, such as a great family, servants, equi- 


xo 


290 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


page, gayety, and the like, which were things I had no 
notion of, or inclination to ; so that I had nothing indeed 
to do, but to sit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see 
it increase daily upon my hands. 

Yet all these things had no effect upon me ; or at least, not 
enough to resist the strong inclination I had to go abroad 
again, which hung about me like a chronical distemper; 
particularly the desire of seeing my new plantation in the 
island, and the colony I left there, run in my head continu- 
ally. I dreamed of it all night, and my imagination run 
upon it all day. It was uppermost in all my thoughts, and my 
fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it, that I talked 
of it in my sleep. In short, nothing could remove it out of 
my mind. It even broke so violently into all my discourses, 
that it made my conversation tiresome ; for I could talk of 
nothing else, all my discourse run into it, even to imperti- 
nence, and I saw it myself. 

I have often heard persons of good judgment say, that all 
the stir people make in the world about ghosts and appari- 
tions, is owing to the strength of imagination and the 
powerful operation of fancy in their minds ; that there is no 
such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost walking, and the 
like. That people’s poring affectionately upon the past 
conversation of their deceased friends, so realizes it to them, 
that they are capable of fancying, upon some extraordinary 
circumstances, that they see them, talk to them, and are 
answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but 
shadow and vapor in the thing, and they really know nothing 
of the matter. 

For my part, I know not to this hour, whether there are 
any such things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of 
people after they are dead ; or whether there is anything in 
the stories they tell us of that kind, more than the product 
of vapors, sick minds, and wandering fancies; but this I 
know, that my imagination worked up to such a height, and 
brought me into such ecstasies of vapors, or what else I may 
call it, that I actually supposed myself often times upon the 
spot, at my old castle behind the trees ; saw my old Span- 
iard, Friday’s father, and the reprobate sailors I left upon 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


291 


the island. Nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked 
at them so steadily, though I was broad awake, as at per- 
sons just before me ; and this I did till I often frighted 
myself with the images my fancy represented to me. One 
time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of the three pirate 
sailors so lively related to me by the first Spaniard and Fri- 
day’s father, that it was surprising. They told me how 
they barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, 
and that they set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on 
purpose to distress and starve them. Things that I had 
never heard of, and that indeed, were never all of them true 
in fact; but it was so warm in my imagination, and so real- 
ised to me, that to the hour I saw them, I could not be 
persuaded but that it was or would be true; also how I 
resented it when the Spaniard complained to me, and how 
I brought them to justice, tried them before me, and ordered 
them all three to be hanged. What there was really in this, 
shall be seen in its place ; for however I came to form such 
things in my dream, and what secret converse of spirits 
injected it, yet there was very much of it true, — I say, I own 
that this dream had nothing in it literally and specifically 
true ; but the general part was so true, the base, villainous 
behavior of these three hardened rogues was such, and 
had been so much worse than all I can describe, that the 
dream had too much similitude of the fact ; and, as I would 
afterwards have punished them severely ; so if I had hanged 
them all, I had been much in the right, and should have 
been justifiable both by the laws of God and man. 

But to return to my story. In this kind of temper I had 
lived some years ; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant 
hours, no agreeable diversion, but what had something or 
other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind so 
wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night, that 
she believed there was some secret, powerful impulse of 
Providence upon me, which had determined me to go thither 
again; and that she found nothing hindered my going, but 
my being engaged to a wife and children. She told me that 
it was true she could not think of parting with me ; but as 
she was assured that if she was dead, it would be the first 


292 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


thing I would do. So as it seemed to her, that the thing 
was determined above, she would not be the only obstruc- 
tion. For if I thought fit, and resolved to go — here she 
found me very intent upon her words, and that I looked 
very earnestly at her; so that it a little disordered her, and 
she stopped. I asked her why she did not go on, and say 
out what she was going to say. But I perceived her heart 
was too full, and some tears stood in her eyes. “ Speak out, 
my dear,” said I “are you willing I should go?” “No,” 
said she, very affectionately, “ I am far from willing. But if 
you are resolved to go,” said she, “ and rather than I will be 
the only hindrance, I will go with you ; for though I think it 
a most preposterous thing for one of your years, and in your 
condition, yet if it must be,” said she, again weeping, “ I 
won’t leave you ; for if it be of Heaven, you must do it. 
There is no resisting it; and if Heaven makes it your duty 
to go, he will also make it mine to go with you, or otherwise 
dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it.” 

This affectionate behavior of my wife brought me a 
little out of the vapors, and I began to consider what I was 
a-doing. I corrected my wandering fancy, and began to 
argue with myself sedately, what business I had after three- 
score years, and after such a life of tedious sufferings and 
disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner, — I say, 
what business had I to rush into new hazards, and put 
myself upon adventures, fit only for youth and poverty to 
run into ? 

With those thoughts, I considered my new engagement, 
that I had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great 
with child of another; that I had all the world could give 
me, and had no need to seek hazards for gain ; that I was 
declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what 
I had gained, than of seeking to increase it. That as to 
what my wife had said, of its being an impulse from Heaven, 
and that it should be my duty to go, I had no notion of that. 
So after many of these cogitations, I struggled with the 
power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as I 
believe people may always do in like cases, if they will ; and 
in a word, I conquered it ; composed myself with such argu- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


293 


ments as occurred to my thought, and which my present 
condition furnished me plentifully with, and particularly, as 
the most effectual method, I resolved to divert myself 
with other things, and to engage in some business that 
might effectually tie me up from any more excursions of 
this kind; for I found that thing return upon me chiefly 
when I was idle, had nothing to do, nor anything of moment 
immediately before me. 

To this purpose I bought a little farm in the country of 
Bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither. I had a 
little convenient house upon it, and the land about it I found 
was capable of great improvement, and that it was in many 
ways suited to my inclination, which delighted in cultivating, 
managing, planting, and improving of land ; and particularly, 
being an inland country, I was removed from conversing 
among ships, sailors, and things relating to the remote part 
of the world. 

In a word, I went down to my farm, settled my family, 
bought me ploughs, harrows, a cart, wagon, horses, cows, 
sheep ; and setting seriously to work, became in one half 
year, a mere country gentleman ; my thoughts were entirely 
taken up in managing my servants, cultivating the ground, 
enclosing, planting, etc., and I lived, as I thought, the most 
agreeable life that nature was capable of directing, or that a 
man always bred to misfortunes was capable of being re- 
treated to. 

I farmed upon my own land, I had no rent to pay, was 
limited by no articles ; I could pull up or cut down as I 
pleased; what I planted was for myself, and what I im- 
proved was for my family; and having thus left off the 
thoughts of wandering, I had not the least discomfort in an 
part of life, as to this world. Now I thought indeed that 
I enjoyed the middle state of life, that my father so earnestly 
recommended to me, and lived a kind of heavenly life, some- 
thing like what is described by the poet upon the subject of 
a country life : 


Free from vices, free from care, 

Age has no pain, and youth no snare. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


294 

But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unfore- 
seen Providence unhinged me at once; and not only made 
a breach upon me inevitable and incurable, but drove me, 
by its consequences, into a deep relapse, into the wandering 
disposition, which, as I may say, being born in my very 
blood, soon recovered its hold of me, and like the returns of 
a violent distemper, came on with an irresistible force upon 
me ; so that nothing could make any more impression upon 
me. This blow was the loss of my wife. 

It is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, 
give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court 
to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in 
a few words, the stay of all my affairs, the centre of all my 
enterprises, the engine, that by her prudence reduced me to 
that happy compass I was in, from the most extravagant and 
ruinous project that fluttered in my head, as above ; and did 
more to guide my rambling genius than a mother’s tears, a 
father’s instructions, a friend’s counsel, or my own reason- 
ing powers could do. I was happy in listening to her tears, 
and in being moved by her entreaties, and to the last degree 
desolate and dislocated in the world by the loss of her. 

When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round 
me; I was as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was 
in the Brazils, when I went first on shore there ; and as 
much alone, except as to the assistance of servants, as I was 
in my island. I knew neither what to do, nor what not to do. 
I saw the world busy round me, one part laboring for bread, 
and the other part squandering in vile excesses or empty 
pleasures, equally miserable, because the end they proposed 
still fled from them ; for the man of pleasure every day sur- 
feited of his vice, and heaped up work for sorrow and repent- 
ance; and the men of labor spent their strength in daily 
struggling for bread to maintain the vital strength they 
labored with, so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living 
but to work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were 
the only end of wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only 
occasion of daily bread. 

This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, 
the island ; where I suffered no more corn to grow because I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


2 95 

did not want it, and bred no more goats because I had no 
more use for them ; where the money lay in the drawer until 
it grew mouldy, and had scarce the favor to be looked upon 
in twenty years. 

All these things, had I improved them as I ought to have 
done and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would 
have taught to me to search farther than human enjoyments 
for a full felicity; and that there was something which 
certainly was the reason and end of life, superior to all these 
things, and which was either to be possessed or at least hoped 
for, on this side the grave. 

But my sage counsellor was gone ; I was like a ship without 
a pilot that could only run before the wind. My thoughts 
run all away again into the old affair ; my head was quite 
turned with the whims of foreign adventures ; and all the 
pleasant, innocent amusements of my farm and my garden, 
my cattle, and my family, which before entirely possessed me, 
were nothing to me, had no relish, and were like music to one 
that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste. In a word, 
I resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm and return 
to London ; and in a few months after I did so. 

When I came to London I was still as uneasy as I was 
before. I had no relish to the place, no employment in it; 
nothing to do but to saunter about like an idle person of whom 
it may be said, he is perfectly useless in God’s creation, and 
it is not one farthing matter, to the rest of his kind, whether 
he be dead or alive. This also was the life, which of all 
circumstances of life was the most my aversion, who had 
been all my days used to an active life ; and I would often say 
to myself a state of idleness is the very dregs of life, and 
indeed I thought I was much more suitably employed when I 
was twenty-six days a making me a deal-board. 

It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, 
whom, as I had observed before, I had brought up to the sea 
and had made him commander of a ship, was come home 
from a short voyage to Bilboa, being the first he had made; 
and he came to me and told me, that some merchants of his 
acquaintance had been proposing to him to go a voyage for 
them to the East Indies and to China as private traders; 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


296 

“and now, uncle/’ says he, “if you will go to sea with me I’ll 
engage to land you upon your old habitation on the island, 
for we are to touch at the Brazils.” 

Nothing can be a greater demonstration, of a future state 
and of the existence of an invisible world, than the concur- 
rence of second causes with the ideas of things which we 
form in our minds, perfectly reserved, and not communicated 
to any in the world. 

My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of 
wandering was returned upon me, and I knew nothing of 
what he had in his thoughts to say, when, that very morning 
before he came to me, I had in a great deal of confusion of 
thought, and revolving every part of my circumstances in my 
mind, come to this resolution, viz: that I would go to Lisbon 
and consult with my old sea-captain ; and so, if it was rational 
and practicable, I would go and see the island again and see 
what was become of my people there. I had pleased myself 
with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying 
inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the possession, 
and I knew not what, when, in the middle of all this, in comes 
my nephew, as I have said, with his project of carrying me 
thither, in his way to the East Indies. 

I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, 
“What devil,” said I, “ sent you of this unlucky errand? ” 
My nephew startled as if he had been frighted at first; but 
perceiving I was not much displeased with the proposal, 
he recovered himself. “ I hope it may not be an unlucky 
proposal, sir,” said he, “ I dare say you would be pleased to 
see your new colony there, where you once reigned with 
more felicity, than most of your brother monarchs in the 
world.” 

In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that 
is to say, the prepossession 1 was under, and of which I have 
said so much, that I told him in few words, if he agreed 
with the merchants, I would go with him ; but I told him I 
would not promise to go any further than my own island. 
“Why, sir,” said he, “ you don’t want to be left there again, 
I hope?” “Why,” said I, “can you not take me up again 
in your return ? ” He told me, it could not be possible, that 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


297 

the merchants would allow him to come that way with a 
loaded ship of such value, it being a month’s sail out of his 
way, and might be three or four; “besides, sir, if I should 
miscarry,” said he, “ and not return at all, then you would be 
just reduced to the condition you were in before.” 

This was very rational ; but we both found out a remedy 
for it, which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, 
which being taken in pieces, and shipped on board the ship, 
might by the help of some carpenters, whom we agreed to 
carry with us, be set up again in the island, and finished, fit 
to go to sea in a few days. 

I was not long resolving; for indeed the importunities of 
my nephew joined in so effectually with my inclination, that 
nothing could oppose me ; on the other hand, my wife being 
dead, I had nobody concerned themselves so much for me, 
as to persuade me one way or other, except my ancient good 
friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to con- 
sider my years, my easy circumstances, and the needless 
hazards of a long voyage ; and above all, my young children. 
But it was all to no purpose ; I had an irresistible desire to 
the voyage; and I told her I thought there was something 
so uncommon in the impressions I had upon my mind for 
the voyage, that it would be a kind of resisting Providence, 
if I should attempt to stay at home; after which, she ceased 
her expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making 
provision for my voyage, but also in settling my family 
affairs for my absence, and providing for the education of 
my children. 

In order to this, I made my will, and settled the estate I 
had in such a manner for my children, and placed in such 
hands, that I was perfectly easy and satisfied they would 
have justice done them, whatever might befall me ; and for 
their education, I left it wholly to my widow, with a sufficient 
maintenance to herself for her care : all which she richly 
deserved ; for no mother could have taken more care in 
their education, or understood it better; and as she lived till 
I came home, I also lived to thank her for it. 

My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of Jan- 
uary, 1 694-5, and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


298 

the Downs, on the 8th, having, besides that sloop which I 
mentioned above, a very considerable cargo of all kinds of 
necessary things for my colony, which if I did not find in 
good condition, I resolved to leave so. 

First, I carried with me some servants, whom I purposed 
to place there, as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there 
upon my own account while I stayed, and either to leave 
them there, or carry them forward, as they should appear 
willing; particularly, I carried two carpenters, a smith, and 
a very handy, ingenious fellow, who was a cooper by trade, 
but was also a general mechanic ; for he was dexterous at 
making wheels, and hand-mills to grind corn, was a good 
turner, and a good pot-maker ; he also made anything that 
was proper to make of earth, or of wood ; in a word, we 
called him our “Jack of all Trades.” 

With these I carried a tailor, who had offered himself to 
go passenger to the East Indies with my nephew, but after- 
wards consented to stay on our new plantation, and proved 
a most necessary, handy fellow as could be desired, in many 
other businesses besides that of his trade ; for, as I observed 
formerly, necessity arms us for all employments. 

My cargo, as near as I can collect, for I have not kept an 
account of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity 
of linen, and some thin English stuffs for clothing the Span- 
iards that I expected to find there ; and enough of them, as 
by my calculation, might comfortably supply them for seven 
years. If I remember right, the materials I carried for 
clothing them with, gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all 
such things as they could want for wearing, amounted to 
above two hundred pounds, including some beds, bedding, 
and household-stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with pots, 
kettles, pewter, brass, etc. And near an hundred pound 
more in iron-work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, 
hinges, and every necessary thing I could think of. 

I carried also an hundred spare arms, muskets and fusees, 
besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot cf all 
sizes, and two pieces of brass cannon ; and because I knew 
not what time, and what extremities I was providing for, I 
carried an hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cut- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


299 


lasses, and the iron part of some pikes and halberts. So, 
that in short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of stores; 
and I made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns 
more than he wanted for his ship, to leave behind, if there 
was occasion, that when we came there we might build a 
fort, and man it against all sorts of enemies. And, indeed, 
I at first thought there was need enough for it all, and much 
more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, 
as shall be seen in the course of that story. 

I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used 
to meet with ; and, therefore, shall have the less occasion to 
interrupt the reader, who, perhaps, may be impatient to hear 
how matters went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, 
cross winds, and bad weather happened on this first setting 
out, which made the voyage longer than I expected it at 
first. And I, who had never made but one voyage, viz: my 
first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to come 
back again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to 
think the same ill fate still attended me ; and that I was 
born never to be contented with being on shore, and yet to 
be always unfortunate at sea. 

Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were 
obliged to put in at Galway in Ireland, where we lay wind- 
bound two-and-twenty days. But we had this satisfaction 
with the disaster, that provisions were here exceeding 
cheap, and in the utmost plenty ; so that while we lay here, 
we never touched the ship’s stores, but rather added to 
them ; also I took in several live hogs, and two cows and 
calves, which I resolved, if I had a good passage, to put on 
shore in my island, but we found occasion to dispose 
otherwise of them. 

We set out the fifth of February from Ireland, and had a 
very fair gale of wind for some days. As I remember, it 
might be about the 20th of February in the evening late, 
when the mate, having the watch, came into the round-house 
and told us he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun fired, and 
while he was telling us of it, a boy came in, and told us the 
boatswain heard another. This made us all run out upon 
the quarter-deck, where for awhile we heard nothing, but in 


3 °° 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found that 
there was some very terrible fire at a distance. Immediately 
we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed 
that there could be no land that way, in which the fire 
showed itself, no, not for five hundred leagues, for it 
appeared at W. N. W. Upon this we concluded it must be 
some ship on fire at sea ; and as by our hearing the noise, 
of guns just before, we concluded it could not be far off; we 
stood directly towards it, and were presently satisfied we 
should discover it, because the farther we sailed, the greater 
the light appeared, though the weather being hazy, we could 
not perceive anything but the light for a while. In about 
half an hour’s sailing, the wind being fair for us, though not 
much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we could 
plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle 
of the sea. 

I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though 
not at all acquainted with the persons engaged in it. I 
presently recollected my former circumstances, and in what 
condition I was in, when taken up by the Portugal captain; 
and how much more deplorable the circumstances of the 
poor creatures belonging to this ship must be, if they had 
no other ship in company with them. Upon this, I imme- 
diately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon after 
another; that, if possible, we might give notice to them 
that there was help for them at hand, and that they might 
endeavor to save themselves in their boat ; for though we 
could see the flame of the ship, yet they, it being night, 
could see nothing of us. 

We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burn- 
ing ship drove, waiting for daylight ; when, on a sudden, to 
our great terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship 
blew up in the air; and immediately, that is to say, in a few 
minutes, all the fire was out, that is to say, the rest of the 
ship sunk. This was a terrible, and indeed an afflicting 
sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded must 
be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost dis- 
tress in their boat in the middle of the ocean, which, at 
present, by reason it was dark, I could not see. However, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 QI 


to direct them as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung 
out in all the parts of the ship where we could, and which 
we had lanterns for, and kept firing guns all the night long, 
letting them know by this, that there was a ship not far off. 

About eight o’clock in the morning we discovered the 
ship’s boats by the help of our perspective glasses, and found 
there were two of them, both thronged with people, and 
deep in the water. We perceived they rowed, the wind 
being against them, that they saw our ship, and did their 
utmost to make us see them. 

We immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we 
saw them, and hung a waft out as a signal for them to come 
on board, and then made more sail, standing directly to 
them. In little more than half an hour we came up with 
them, and, in a word, took them all in, being no less than 
sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great 
many passengers. 

Upon the whole, we found it was a French merchant ship 
of three hundred tons, homeward bound from Quebec, in the 
river of Canada. The master gave us a long account of the 
distress of his ship, how the fire began in the steerage, by 
the negligence of the steersman ; but, on his crying out for 
help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out, when they 
found that some sparks of the first fire had gotten into some 
part of the ship, so difficult to come at, that they could not 
effectually quench it, till, getting in between the timbers, and 
within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the hold, 
and mastered all the skill and all the application they were 
able to exert. 

They had no more to do then, but to get into their boats, 
which, to their great comfort were pretty large, being their 
long boat and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which 
was of no great service to them, other than to get some 
fresh water and provisions into her after they had secured 
their lives from the fire. They had, indeed, small hope of 
their lives by getting into these boats at that distance from 
any land, only as they said well, that they were escaped 
from the fire, and had a possibility that some ship might 
happen to be at sea, and might take them in. They had 


3° 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


sails, oars, and a compass, and were preparing to make the 
best of their way back to Newfoundland, the wind blowing 
pretty fair, for it blew an easy gale at S. E. by E. They 
had as much provisions and water, as, with sparing it so as 
to be next door to starving, might support them about 
twelve days; in which, if they had no bad weather, and no 
contrary winds, the captain said, he hoped he might get to the 
banks of Newfoundland, and might, perhaps, take some fish 
to sustain them till they might go on shore. But there were 
so many chances against them in all these cases ; such as 
storms to overset and founder them, rains and cold to 
benumb and perish their limbs, contrary winds to keep them 
out, and starve them, that it must have been next to miracu- 
lous if they had escaped. 

In the midst of their consultations, everyone being hopeless 
and ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told 
me they were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a 
gun fire, and after that four more ; these were the five guns 
which I caused to be fired, at first seeing the light. This 
revived their hearts and gave them the notice which, as above 
I desired it should, viz., that there was a ship at hand for their 
help. 

It was upon hearing these guns that they took down their 
masts and sails ; the sound coming from the windward, they 
resolved to lie by until morning. Some time after this, 
hearing no more guns, they fired three muskets ; one a 
considerable while after another, but these, the wind being 
contrary, we never heard. 

Some time after that again, they were still more agreeably 
surprised with seeing our lights and hearing the guns, which, 
as I have said, I caused to be fired all the rest of the night. 
This set them to work with their oars to keep their boats 
ahead, at least, that we might the sooner come up with them, 
and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found we saw them. 

It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the 
strange ecstacies, the variety of postures, which these poor, 
delivered people run into, to express the joy of their souls 
at so unexpected a deliverance. Grief and fear are easily 
described ; sighs, tears, groans and a very few motions of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3°3 


the head and hands make up the sum of its variety ; but an 
excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagancies 
in it. There were some in tears, some raging and tearing 
themselves as if they had been in the greatest agonies of 
sorrow, some stark-raving and down-right lunatic, some ran 
about the ship stamping with their feet, others wringing their 
hands, some were dancing, some singing, some laughing, 
more crying; many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; 
others sick and vomiting, several swooning and ready to 
faint; and a few were crossing themselves and giving God 
thanks. 

I would not wrong them neither. There might be many 
that were thankful afterward ; but the passion was too strong 
for them at first, and they were not able to master it; they 
were thrown into ecstacies and a kind of frenzy, and it was 
but a very few that were composed and serious in their joy. 

Perhaps the case may have some addition to it, from the 
particular circumstance of that nation they belonged to; I 
mean the French, whose temper is allowed to be more 
volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits 
more fluid than in other nations. I am not philosopher 
enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had ever seen 
before came up to it. The ecstacies poor Friday, my trusty 
savage, was in, when he found his father in the boat, came 
the nearest to it; and the surprise of the master and his two 
companions, who 1 delivered from the villains that set them 
on shore on the island, came a little way towards it; but 
nothing was to compare to this, either that I saw in Friday 
or anywhere else in my life. 

It is further observable, that these extravagancies did not 
show themselves, in that different manner I have mentioned, 
in different persons only; but all the variety would appear 
in a short succession of moments in one and the same 
person. A man, that we saw this minute dumb, and as it 
were stupid and confounded, should the next minute be 
dancing and hallooing like an antic ; and the next moment 
be tearing his hair or pulling his clothes to pieces, and 
stamping them under his feet like a mad man ; and a few 
moments after that we should have him all in tears, then 


3 ° 4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


sick, then swooning; and had not immediate help been had, 
would, in a few moments more have been dead. And thus it 
was, not with one or two, or ten or twenty; but with the 
greatest part of them, and, if I remember right, our surgeon 
was obliged to let above thirty of them blood. 

There were two priests among them, one an old man, and 
the other a young man ; and that which was strangest was, 
that the oldest man was the worst. As soon as he set foot 
on board our ship, and saw himself safe, he dropped down 
stone dead : not the least sign of life could be perceived in 
him. Our surgeon immediately applied proper remedies to 
recover him, and was the only man in the ship that believed 
he was not dead. At length, he opened a vein in his arm, 
having first chafed and rubbed the part so as to warm it as 
much as possible. Upon this the blood, which only dropped 
at first, flowed something freely. In three minutes after, 
the man opened his eyes, and about a quarter of an hour 
after that, he spoke, grew better, and in a little time, quite 
well. After the blood was stopped, he walked about, and 
told us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial which 
the surgeon gave him, and was what we called come to him- 
self. About a quarter of an hour after, they came running 
into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a French 
woman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone 
stark mad. It seems he had begun to revolve the change 
of his circumstances, and again this put him into an ecstasy 
of joy, his spirits whirled about faster than the vessels could 
convey them. The blood grew hot and feverish, and the 
man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature that ever was in 
it. The surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, 
but gave him something to dose, and put him to sleep, which 
after some time, operated upon him, and he waked the next 
morning perfectly composed and well. 

The younger priest behaved with great command of his 
passions, and was really an example of a serious, well- 
governed mind. At his first coming on board the ship, he 
threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself in thank- 
fulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappily and unsea- 
sonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3°5 

swoon; but he spake calmly, thanked me, told me he was 
giving God thanks for his deliverance, and begged me to 
leave him a few moments, and that, next to his Maker, he 
would give me thanks also. 

I was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only 
left him, but kept others from interrupting him also. He 
continued in that posture about three minutes, or little more, 
after I left him, then came to me, as he had said he would, 
and with a great deal of seriousness and affection, but with 
tears in his eyes, thanked me that had, under God, given 
him and so many miserable creatures their lives. I told 
him I had no room to move him to thank God for it, rather 
than me ; but I added, that it was nothing but what reason 
and humanity dictated to all men, and that we had as much 
reason as he to give thanks to God, who had blessed us so 
far as to make us the instruments of his mercy to so many 
of his creatures. 

After this, the young priest applied himself to his country 
folks ; labored to compose them ; persuaded, entreated, 
argued, reasoned with them, and did his utmost to keep 
them within the exercise of their reason ; and with some he 
had success, though others were, for a time, out of all gov- 
ernment of themselves. 

I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps, it 
may be useful to those into whose hands it may fall, 
for the guiding themselves in all the extravagancies of their 
passions ; for, if an excess of joy can carry men out to such 
a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not the 
extravagancies of anger, rage, and a provoked mind, carry 
us to ? And indeed, here I saw reason for keeping an 
exceeding watch over our passions of every kind, as well 
those of joy and satisfaction, as those of sorrow and anger. 

We were something disordered by these extravagances 
among our new guests for the first day; but when they had 
been retired, lodgings provided for them as well as our ship 
would allow, and they had slept heartily, as most of them 
did, they were quite another sort of people the next day. 

Nothing of good manners or civil acknowledgments for 
the kindness shown them was wanting; the French, it is 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


306 

known, are naturally apt to exceed that way. The captain 
and one of the priests came to me the next day, and, desir- 
ing to speak with me and my nephew, the commander began 
to consult with us what should be done with them ; and first 
they told us, that as we had saved their lives, so all they 
had was little enough for a return to us for that kindness 
received. The captain said, they had saved some money 
and some things of value in their boats, catched hastily up 
out of the flames, and if we would accept it, they were 
ordered to make an offer of it all to us ; they only desired to 
be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible, 
they might get passage to France. 

My nephew was for accepting their money at first word, 
and to consider what to do with them afterwards; but I 
overruled him in that part, for I knew what it was to be set 
on shore in a strange country; and if the Portugal captain 
that took me up at sea had served me so, and took all I had 
for my deliverance, I must have starved, or have been as 
much a slave at the Brazils as I had been in Barbary, the 
mere being sold to a Mahometan excepted ; and perhaps a 
Portuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not 
in some cases a much worse. 

I therefore told the French captain, that we had taken 
them up in their distress, it was true, but that it was our 
duty to do so, as we were fellow-creatures, and as we would 
desire to be so delivered if we were in the like, or any other 
extremity ; that we had done nothing for them but what we 
believed they would have done for us, if we had been in 
their case, and they in ours ; but that we took them up to 
save them, not to plunder them, and it would be a most bar- 
barous thing to take that little from them which they saved 
out of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave 
them. That this would be first to save them from death, 
and then to kill them ourselves ; save them from drowning, 
and abandon them to starving; and, therefore, I would not 
let the least thing be taken from them. As to setting them 
on shore, I told them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty 
to us, for that the ship was bound to the East Indies; and 
though we were driven out of our course to the westward a 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


307 


very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven on 
purpose for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us 
wilfully to change our voyage on this particular account, nor 
could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters, 
with whom he was under charter-party to pursue his voyage 
by the way of Brazil; and all I knew we could do for them, 
was to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships 
homeward bound from the West Indies, and get them 
passage, if possible, to England or France. 

The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, 
they could not but be very thankful for it ; but they were in 
a very great consternation, especially the passengers, at the 
notion of being carried away to the East Indies, and they 
then entreated me, that seeing I was driven so far to the 
westward, before I met with them, I would at least keep on 
the same course to the banks of Newfoundland, where it was 
probable I might meet with some ship or sloop that they might 
hire to carry them back to Canada, from whence they came. 

I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, 
and therefore I inclined to agree to it ; for indeed I consid- 
ered, that to carry this whole company to the East Indies, 
would not only be an intolerable severity upon the poor 
people, but would be ruining our whole voyage by devouring 
all our provisions; so I thought it no breach of charter- 
party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely 
necessary to us, and in which no one could say we were to 
blame; for the laws of God and nature would have forbid 
that we should refuse to take up two boats full of people in 
such a distressed condition ; and the nature of the thing as 
well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to 
set them on shore somewhere or other for their deliverance; 
so I consented that we should carry them to Newfoundland, 
if wind and weather would permit, and if not, that I would 
carry them to Martinico in the West Indies. 

The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty 
good; and as the winds had continued in the points between 
N. E. and S. E. a long time, we missed several opportunities 
of sending them to France; for we met several ships bound 
to Europe, whereof two were French, from St. Christopher’s, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


308 

but they had been so long beating up against the wind, that 
they dared take in no passengers for fear of wanting provi- 
sions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they 
should take in; so we were obliged to go on. It was about 
a week after this that we made the banks of Newfoundland, 
where, to shorten my story, we put all our French people on 
board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on 
shore, and afterwards to carry them to France, if they could 
get provisions to victual themselves with. When I say all 
the French went on shore, I should remember, that the 
young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to the East 
Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on 
shore on the coast of Coromandel^ which I readily agreed 
to, for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good 
reason, as will appear afterwards ; also four of the seamen 
entered themselves on our ship, and proved very useful 
fellows, 

From hence we directed our course to the West Indies, 
steering away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, 
sometimes little or no wind at all, when we met with another 
subject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable 
as that before. 

It was a latitude of twenty-seven degrees live minutes 
north, and the 19th day of March, 1694-5, when we spied a 
sail, our course S. E. and by S. We soon perceived it was 
a large vessel, and that she bore up to us, but could not 
at first know what to make of her, till after coming a little 
nearer, we found she had lost her main-top-mast, fore-mast 
and boltsprit, and presently she fired a gun as a signal of 
distress ; the weather was good, pretty wind at N. N. W., a 
fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her. 

We found her a ship of Bristol, bound home from Barba- 
does, but had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes a 
few days before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurri- 
cane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone on 
shore ; so that, besides the terror of the storm, they were but 
in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship home. 
They had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with 
another terrible storm after the hurricane was over, which 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 ° 9 

had blown them quite out of their knowledge to the west- 
ward, and in which they lost their masts, as above ; they 
told us they expected to have seen the Bahama Islands, but 
were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong 
gale of wind at N. N. W. the same that blew now, and hav- 
ing no sails to work the ship with but a main course, and a 
kind of square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they had set 
up, they could not lie near the wind, but were endeavoring 
to stand away for the Canaries. 

But that which was worst of all, was, that they were 
almost. starved for want of provisions, besides the fatigues 
they had undergone. Their bread and flesh was quite gone, 
they had not one ounce left in the ship, and had had none 
for eleven days. The only relief they had, was, their water 
was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour 
left. They had sugar enough. Some succades, or sweet- 
meats, they had at first; but they were devoured, and they 
had seven casks of rum. 

There was a youth, and his mother, and a maid-servant 
on board, who were going passengers, and, thinking the ship 
was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening 
before the hurricane began; and having no provisions of 
their own left, they were in a more deplorable condition 
than the rest, for the seamen being reduced to such an 
extreme necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may 
be sure, for the poor passengers ; and they were indeed, in a 
condition that their misery is very hard to describe. 

I had, perhaps, not known this part, if my curiosity had 
not led me, the weather being fair, and the wind abated, to 
go on board the ship. The second mate, who upon this 
occasion commanded the ship, had been on board our ship, 
and he told me indeed they had three passengers in the 
great cabin, that were in a deplorable condition. “ Nay,” 
said he, “ I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing 
of them for above two days ; and I was afraid to inquire after 
them,” said he, “for I had nothing to relieve them with.” 

We immediately applied ourselves to give them what 
relief we could spare; and indeed, I had so far overruled 
things with my nephew, that I would have victualed them, 


3 10 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


though we had gone away to Virginia, or any part of the 
coast of America, to have supplied them ourselves ; but 
there was no necessity for that. 

But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid 
of eating too much, even of that little we gave them. The 
mate, or commander, brought six men with him in his boat; 
but these poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so 
weak they could hardly sit to their oars. The mate himself 
was very ill, and half starved; for he declared he had 
reserved nothing from the men, and went share and share 
alike with them in every bit they ate. 

I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him 
immediately, and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before 
he began to be sick, and out of order. So he stopped 
awhile, and our surgeon mixed him up something with some 
broth, which he said would be to him both food and physic ; 
and after he had taken it, he grew better. In the mean- 
time I forgot not the men. I ordered victuals to be given 
them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than eat it. 
They were so exceedingly hungry, that they were in a kind 
ravenous, and had no command of themselves ; and two of 
them eat with so much greediness that they were in danger 
of their lives the next morning. 

The sight of these people’s distress was very moving to 
me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of 
at my first coming on shore in the island, where I had 
neither the least mouthful of food, or any prospect of pro- 
curing any; besides the hourly apprehensions I had of 
being made the food of other creatures. But all the while 
the mate was thus relating to me the miserable condition of 
the ship’s company, I could not put out of my thought the 
story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the great 
cabin, viz : the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom 
he had heard nothing of for two or three days, and whom he 
seemed to confess they had wholly neglected, their own 
extremities being so great; by which, I understood that they 
had really given them no food at all, and that, therefore, 
they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps, on the 
floor, or deck of the cabin. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 1 * 

As I therefore, kept the mate, who we then called captain, 
on board with his men to refresh them, so I also forgot not 
the starving crew that were left on board, but ordered my 
own boat to go on board the ship, and with my mate and 
twelve men to carry them a sack of bread, and four or five 
pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to 
cause the meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep 
guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men taking it to eat 
raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and 
then to give every man but a very little at a time ; and by 
this caution he preserved the men who would otherwise have 
killed themselves with that very food that was given them 
on purpose to save their lives. 

At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great 
cabin and see what condition the poor passengers were in; 
and, if they were alive, to comfort them and give them what 
refreshment was proper ; and the surgeon gave him a large 
pitcher with some of the prepared broth, which he had given 
the mate that was on board, and which he did not question 
would restore them gradually. 

I was not satisfied with this, but, as I have said above, 
having a great mind to see the scene of misery, which I 
knew the ship itself would present me with in a more lively 
manner than I could have it by report, I took the captain of 
the ship, as we now called him, with me ; and went myself a 
little after in their boat. 

I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult, to get 
the victuals out of the boiler before it was ready ; but my 
mate observed his order and kept a good guard at the cook- 
room door; and the man he placed there, after using all 
possible persuasion to have patience, kept them off by force ; 
however, he caused some biscuit cakes to be dipped in the 
pot and softened with the liquor of the meat, which they 
called browse ; and gave them everyone one, to stay their 
stomachs, and told them it was for their own safety that he 
was obliged to give them but a little at a time ; but it was all 
in vain, and had I not come on board and their own com- 
mander and officers with me, and with good words and some 
threats, also, of giving them no more, I believe they would 


3 12 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


have broke into the cook-room by force and tore the meat 
out of the furnace ; for words are indeed of very small force 
to a hungry belly. However we pacified them, and fed them 
gradually and cautiously for the first time, and the next time 
gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and the men 
did well enough. 

But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was 
of another nature, and far beyond the rest ; for, as first the 
ship’s company had so little for themselves, it was but too 
true that they had at first kept them very low and, at last, 
totally neglected them ; so that for six or seven days, it might 
be said, they had really had no food at all, and for several 
days before very little. The poor mother, who as the men 
reported, was a woman of good sense and good breeding, 
had spared all she could get, so affectionately for her son, 
that at last she entirely sunk under it ; and when the mate of 
our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or deck, with her back 
up against the sides, between two chairs which were lashed 
fast, and her head sunk in between her shoulders like a 
corpse, though not quite dead. My mate said all he could, to 
revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put some broth 
into her mouth, bhe opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, 
but could not speak ; yet she understood what he said and 
made signs to him, intimating that it was too late for her, 
but pointed to her child, as if she would have said, they 
should take care of him. 

However, the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the 
sight, endeavored to get some of the broth into her mouth ; 
and as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down, though I 
question whether he could be sure of it or not. But it was 
too late, and she died the same night. 

The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most 
affectionate mother’s life, was not so far rone ; yet he lay in 
a cabin-bed as one stretched out, with hardly any life left in 
him. He had a piece of an old glove in his mouth ; having 
eaten up the rest of it. However, being young, and having 
more strength than his mother; the mate got something 
down his throat and he began sensibly to revive ; though 
by giving him, some time after, but two or three spoon- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 313 

fuls extraordinary he was very sick, and brought it up 
again. 

But the next care was the poor maid ; she lay all along 
upon the deck hard by her mistress, and just like one that 
had fallen down with an apoplexy, and struggled for life. 
Her limbs were distorted, one of her hands was clasped 
round the frame of a chair, and she gripped it so hard, that 
we could not easily make her let go; her other arm lay over 
her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the 
frame of the cabin table. In short, she lay just like one in 
the last agonies of death, and yet she was alive too. 

The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and 
terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us 
afterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, who she 
saw dying for two or three days before, and who she loved 
most tenderly. 

We knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when 
our surgeon, who was a man of very great knowledge and 
experience, had, with great application, recovered her as to 
life, he had her upon his hands as to her senses, for she was 
little less than distracted for a considerable time after, as 
shall appear presently. 

Whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired 
to consider that visits at sea are not like a journey into the 
country, where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight 
at a place. Our business was to relieve this distressed 
ship’s crew, but not to lie by for them; and though they 
were willing to steer the same course with us for some 
days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with a ship 
that had no masts. However, as their captain begged of us 
to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a top- 
mast to his jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for 
three or four days, and then having given him five barrels 
of beef, and a barrel of pork, two hogsheads of biscuits, and 
a proportion of peas, flour, and what other things we could 
spare ; and taking three casks of sugar, some rum, and some 
pieces of eight of them for satisfaction, we left them, taking 
on board with us, at their own earnest request, the priest, 
the youth, and the maid, and all their goods. 


3 1 4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, 
well-bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with 
the loss of his mother, and, as it seems, had lost his father 
but a few months before at Barbadoes. He begged of the 
surgeon to speak to me to take him out of the ship, for he 
said the cruel fellows had murdered his mother. And, 
indeed, so they had, that is to say, passively; for they might 
have spared a small sustenance to the poor, helpless widow, 
that might have preserved her life, though it had been but 
just to keep her alive. But hunger knows no friend, no 
relation, no justice, no right, and therefore is remorseless, 
and capable of no compassion. 

The surgeon told him how far we were going, and how it 
would carry him away from all his friends, and put him, 
perhaps, in as bad circumstances almost, as those we found 
him in; that is to say, starving in the world. He said he 
mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from 
the terrible crew he was among. That the captain (by which 
he meant me, for he could know nothing of my nephew) had 
saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and, as 
for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would 
be very thankful for it, let us carry them where we would. 
The surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me, 
that I yielded, and we took them both on board, with all 
their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could 
not be removed, or come at ; and as the youth had a bill of 
lading for them, I made his commander sign a writing, 
obliging himself to go as soon as he came to Bristol, to one 
Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he 
was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, 
and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow ; 
which I suppose was not done, for I could never learn that 
the ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost 
at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any 
land, that 1 am of opinion the first storm she met with after- 
wards, she would founder in the sea; for she was leaky, and 
had damage in her hold when we met with her. 

I was now in the latitude of nineteen degrees thirty-two 
minutes, and had hitherto had a tolerable voyage as to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3*5 


weather, though at first the winds had been contrary. I 
shall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind, 
weather, currents, etc., on the rest of our voyage ; but, 
shortening my story for the sake of what is to follow, shall 
observe that I came to my old habitation, the island, on the 
10th of April, 1695. It was with no small difficulty that I 
found the place ; for, as I came to it, and went from it before, 
on the south and east side of the island, as coming from the 
Brazils, so now coming in between the main and the island, 
and having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, I did 
not know it when I saw it, or know whether I saw it or no. 

We beat about a great while, and went on shore on 
several islands in the mouth of the great river Orinoco, 
but none for my purpose. Only this I learned by my coast- 
ing the shore, that I was under one great mistake before, 
viz : that the continent which I thought I saw, from the 
island I lived in, was really no continent, but a long island, 
or rather a ridge of islands, reaching from one to the other 
side of the extended mouth of that great river, and that the 
savages who came to my island, were not properly those 
which we call Caribbees, but islanders, and other barbarians 
of the same kind, who inhabited something nearer to our 
side than the rest. 

In short, I visited several of these islands to no purpose; 
some I found were inhabited, and some were not. On one 
of them I found some Spaniards, and thought they had lived 
there ; but speaking with them, I found they had a sloop lay 
in a small creek hard by, and they came thither to make 
salt, and to catch some pearl mussels if they could, but that 
they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay further north, 
in the latitude of ten and eleven degrees. 

But at last, coasting from one island to another, sometimes 
with the ship, sometimes with the Frenchman’s shallop, 
which we had found a convenient boat, and therefore kept 
her with their very good will; at length I came fair on the 
south side of my island, and I presently knew the very 
countenance of the place ; so I brought the ship safe to an 
anchor, broadside with the little creek where was my old 
habitation. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 l6 

As soon as I saw the place, I called for Friday, and asked 
him if he knew where he was. He looked about a little, 
and presently clapping his hands, cried; “ O yes, O there, 
O yes, O there,” pointing to our old habitation, and fell a 
dancing and capering like a mad fellow, and I had much ado 
to keep him from jumping into the sea, to swim ashore to 
the place. 

“Well, Friday,” said I, “do you think we shall find any- 
body here or no ? and what do you think, shall we see 
your father?” The fellow stood mute as a stock a good 
while; but when I named his father, the poor affectionate 
creature looked dejected, and I could see the tears run down 
his face very plentifully. “What is the matter, Friday ? ” 
said I. “Are you troubled because you may see your 
father?” “No, no,” said he, shaking his head, “no see 
him more, no ever more see again.” “Why so?” said 
I, “ Friday, how do you know that ? ” “O no, O no,” said 
Friday, “he long ago die, long ago; he much old man.” 
“Well, well,” said I, “ Friday, you don’t know; but shall we 
see anyone else, then?” The fellow, it seems, had better 
eyes than I, and he pointed just to the hill above my old 
house ; and though we lay half a league off, he cried out, 
“We see! we see! yes, we see much men there, and there, 
and there.” I looked, but I could see nobody, no, not with 
a perspective glass, which was, I suppose, because I could 
not hit the place, for the fellow was right, as I found upon 
enquiry the next day, and there were five or six men 
altogether, stood to look at the ship, not knowing what to 
think of us. 

As soon as Friday had told me he saw people, I caused 
the English ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to 
give them notice we were friends, and in about half a quar- 
ter of an hour after, we perceived a smoke rise from the side 
of the creek, so I immediately ordered a boat out, taking 
Friday with me; and, hanging out a white flag, or flag of 
truce, I went directly on shore, taking with me the young 
friar I mentioned, to whom I had told the whole story of 
my living there, and the manner of it, and every particular 
both of myself, and those I left there ; and who was on 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


317 

that account extremely desirous to go with me. We had 
besides about sixteen men very well armed, if we had found 
any new guests there which we did not know of ; but we 
had no need of weapons. 

As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high 
water, we rowed directly into the creek, and the first man I 
fixed my eye upon, was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, 
and whom I knew by his face perfectly well ; as to his habit 
I shall describe it afterwards. I ordered nobody to go on 
shore at first, but myself, but there was no keeping Friday 
in the boat ; for the affectionate creature had spied his 
father at a distance, a good way off of the Spaniards, where 
indeed I saw nothing of him ; and if they had not let him go 
on shore, he would have jumped into the sea. He was no 
sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an 
arrow out of a bow. It would have made any man shed 
tears in spite of the firmest resolution, to have seen the 
first transports of this poor fellow’s joy when he came to his 
father; how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, 
took him up in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and laid 
down by him, then stood and looked at him, as anyone 
would look at a strange picture, for a Quarter of an hour 
together; then laid down on the ground, and stroked his 
legs, and kissed them, and then got up again, and stared at 
him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched; but it 
would have made a dog laugh to see how the next day his 
passion run out another way. In the morning he walked 
along the shore, to and again, with his father several hours, 
always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady; 
and every now and then he would come to fetch something 
or other for him to the boat, either a lump of sugar, or a 
dram, a biscuit cake, or something or other that was good. 
In the afternoon his frolics run another way; for then he 
would set the old man down upon the ground, and dance 
about him, and make a thousand antic postures and ges- 
tures; and all the while he did this, he would be talking to 
him, and telling him one story or another of his travels, and 
of what had happened to him abroad, to divert him. In 
short, if the same filial affection was to be found in Chris- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


318 

tians to their parents, in our part of the world, one would be 
tempted to say, there would hardly have been any need of 
the fifth commandment. 

But this is a digression; I return to my landing. It 
would be endless to take notice of all the ceremonies and 
civilities that the Spaniards received me with. The first 
Spaniard, whom, as I said, I knew very well, was he whose 
life I had saved ; he came towards the boat, attended by one 
more, carrying a flag of truce also; and he did not only not 
know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no notion of its 
being me that was come, till I spoke to him. “Seignior,” said 
I, in Portuguese, “ do you not know me ? ” at which he spoke 
not a word ; but giving his musket to the man that was with 
him, threw his arms abroad, and saying something in Span- 
ish, that I did not perfectly hear, came forward, and em- 
braced me, telling me he was inexcusable not to know that 
face again, that he had once seen, as of an angel from 
heaven sent to save his life. He said abundance of very 
handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knows 
how ; and then, beckoning to the person that attended him, 
bade him go and call out his comrades. He then asked me, 
if I would walk to my old habitation, where he would give 
me possession of my own house again, and where I should 
see there had been but mean improvements. So I walked 
along with him ; but alas ! I could no more find the place 
again, than if I had never been there ; for they had planted 
so many trees, and placed them in such a posture, so thick 
and close to one another, and in ten years’ time they were 
grown so big, that in short, the place was inaccessible, 
except by such windings and blind ways as they themselves 
only who made them could find. 

I asked them what put them upon all these fortifications. 
He told me I would say there was need enough of it, when 
they had given me an account how they had passed their 
time, since their arriving on the island ; especially after they 
had the misfortune to find that I was gone. He told me he 
could not but have some satisfaction in my good fortune, 
when he heard that I was gone away in a good ship and to 
my satisfaction, and that he had often times a strong persuasion 



DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH THE SPANIARDS. 


Page jig 







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


319 


that one time or other he should see me again ; but nothing 
that ever befell him in his life, he said, was so surprising and 
afflicting to him, at first, as the disappointment he was under 
when he came back to the island, and found I was not there. 

As to the three barbarians, so he called them, that were 
left behind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell 
me, — the Spaniards all thought themselves much better 
among the savages, only that their number was so small; 
“ and,” says he, “ had they been strong enough, we had been all 
long ago in purgatory,” and with that he crossed himself on 
the breast. “But sir,”said he, “I hope you will not be dis- 
pleased when I shall tell you how, forced by necessity, we were 
obliged, for our own preservation, to disarm them and make 
them our subjects; who would not be content with being 
moderately our masters, but would be our murderers.” I 
answered, I was heartily afraid of it when I left them there, 
and nothing troubled me, at my parting from the island, but 
that they were not come back that I might have put them in 
possession of everything first, and left the others in a state of 
subjection as they deserved ; but if they had reduced them 
to it I was very glad, and should be very far from finding 
any fault with it; for I knew they were a parcel of refractory, 
ungoverned villains, and were fit for any manner of mischief. 

While I was saying this, came the man whom he had sent 
back, and with him eleven men more. In the distress they 
were in, it was impossible to guess what nation they were of; 
but he made all clear both to them and to me. First, he 
turned to me, and pointing to them, said; “these, sir, are 
some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to you ;” and then, 
turning to them and pointing to me, he let them know who I 
was ; upon which they all came up, one by one ; not as if 
they had been sailors and ordinary fellows, and I the like, 
but really, as if they had been ambassadors of noblemen, 
and I a monarch or a great conqueror. Their behavior was 
to the last degree obligingand courteous, and yet mixed with 
a manly, majestic gravity which very well became them; and, 
in short, they had so much more manners than I, that I 
scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much less how to 
return them in kind. 


320 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


The history of their coming to and conduct in the island, 
after my going away, is so very remarkable and has so many 
incidents, which the former part of my relation will help to 
understand, and which will in most of the particulars, refer 
to that account I have already given; that I cannot but 
commit them with great delight to the reading of those that 
come after me. 

I shall no longer trouble the story with a relation in the 
first person, which will put me to the expense of ten thousand 
“said I’s” and “said he’s,” and “he told me’s” and “I told 
him’s,” and the like; but I shall collect the facts historically, 
as near as I can gather them out of my memory from what they 
related to me, and from what I met with in my conversing with 
them and with the place. 

In order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as I can, 
I must go back to the circumstance in which I left the 
island, and in which the persons were of whom I am to 
speak. And first it is necessary to repeat, that I had sent 
away Friday’s father and the Spaniard, the two whose lives 
I had rescued from the savages; I say, I had sent them 
away in a large canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to 
fetch over the Spaniard’s companions, whom he had left 
behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity 
that he had been in, and in order to succor them for the 
present, and that, if possible, we might together find some 
way for our deliverance afterward. 

When I sent them away, I had no visible appearance of, 
or the least room to hope for my own deliverance, any more 
than I had twenty years before ; much less had I any fore- 
knowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean of an Eng- 
lish ship coming on shore there to fetch me off ; and it could 
not but be a very great surprise to them when they came 
back, not only to find that I was gone, but to find three 
strangers left on the spot, possessed of all that I had left 
behind me, which would otherwise have been their own. 

The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I 
might begin where I left off, was of their own part ; and I 
desired he would give me a particular account of his voyage 
back to his countrymen, with the boat, when I sent him to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 21 


fetch them over. He told me there was little variety in that 
part, for nothing remarkable happened to them on the way, 
they having very calm weather and a smooth sea ; for his 
countrymen, it could not be doubted, he said, but that they 
were overjoyed to see him. It seems he was the principal 
man among them, the captain of the vessel they had been 
shipwrecked in having been dead some time. They were, 
he said, the more surprised to see him, because they knew 
that he was fallen into the hands of savages, who, they were 
satisfied, would devour him as they did all the rest of the 
prisoners ; that, when he told them the story of his deliver- 
ance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying 
them away, it was like a dream to them. And their aston- 
ishment, they said, was something like that of Joseph’s 
brethren, when he told them who he was, and told them the 
story of his exaltation in Pharaoh’s court. But when he 
showed them the arms, the powder, the ball, and the provi- 
sions that he brought them for their journey or voyage, they 
were restored to themselves, took a just share of the joy of 
their deliverance, and immediately prepared to come away 
with him. 

Their first business was to get canoes ; and in this they 
were obliged not to stick so much upon the honest part of 
it, but to trespass upon their friendly savages, and to bor- 
row two large canoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out 
a-fishing, or for pleasure. 

In these they came away the next morning. It seems 
they wanted no time to get themselves ready, for they had 
no baggage, neither clothes or provisions, or anything in the 
world, but what they had on them, and a few roots to eat, of 
which they used to make their bread. 

They were in all three weeks absent, and in that time, 
unluckily for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, 
as I mentioned in my other part, and to get off from the 
island, leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungov- 
erned, disagreeable villains behind me, that any man could 
desire to meet with, to the poor Spaniards’ great grief and 
disappointment, you may be sure. 

The only just thing the rogues did, was, that when the 


3 22 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Spaniards came on shore, they gave my letter to them, and 
gave them provisions and other relief, as I had ordered 
them to do ; also they gave them the long paper of direc- 
tions which I had left .with them, containing the particular 
methods which I took for managing every part of my life 
there ; the way how I baked my bread, bred up tame goats, 
and planted my corn, how I cured my grapes, made my pots, 
and, in a word, everything I did. All this being written 
down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of whom understood 
English well enough; nor did they refuse to accommodate 
the Spaniards with everything else, for they agreed very 
well for some time. They gave them an equal admission 
into the house or cave, and they began to live very sociably, 
and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my 
methods, and Friday’s father, together managed all their 
affairs. For, as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but 
ramble about the island, shoot parrots and catch tortoises, 
and when they came home at night, the Spaniards provided 
their suppers for them. 

The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this, would 
the others but have left them alone, which, however, they 
could not find in their hearts to do long, but like the dog in 
the manger, they would not eat themselves, and would not 
let others eat neither. The differences, nevertheless, were at 
first but trivial, and such as are not worth relating; but at 
last, it broke out into open war, and it begun with all the 
rudeness and insolence that can be imagined, without reason, 
without provocation, contrary to nature, and indeed, to com- 
mon sense, and, though it is true the first relation of it came 
from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may call the accu- 
sers, yet when I came to examine the fellows, they could not 
deny a word of it. 

But before I came to the particulars of this part, I must 
supply a defect in my former relation, and this was, that I 
forgot to set down among the rest, that just as we were 
weighing the anchor to set sail, there happened a little 
quarrel on board our ship, which I was afraid once would 
have turned to a second mutiny ; nor was it appeased till 
the captain rousing up his courage, and taking us all to his 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 2 3 


assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the 
most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons; 
and as they had been active in the former disorders, and let 
some dangerous, ugly words the second time, he threatened 
to carry them in irons to England, and have them hanged 
there for mutiny, and running away with the ship. 

This, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, 
frighted some other men in the ship, and some of them had 
put it into the heads of the rest, that the captain only .gave 
them good words for the present, till they should come to 
some English port, and that then they should be all put into 
jail, and tried for their lives. 

The mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with 
it; upon which, it was desired that I, who still passed for a 
great man among them, should go down with the mate, and 
satisfy the men, and tell them, that they might be assured, 
if they behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had 
done for the time past should be pardoned. So I went, and 
after passing my honor’s word to them, they appeared easy; 
and the more so when I caused the two men who were in 
irons to be released and forgiven. 

But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that 
night, the wind also falling calm. Next morning we found 
that our two men who had been laid in irons, had stolen each 
of them a musket, and some other weapons. What powder 
or shot they had, we know not; and had taken the ship’s 
pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and ran away with 
her to their companions in roguery on shore. 

As soon as we found this, I ordered the long boat on 
shore, with twelve men and the mate, and away they went to 
seek the rogues, but they could neither find them, nor any 
of the rest; for they all fled into the woods when they saw 
the boat coming on shore. The mate was once resolved, in 
justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their plantations, 
burnt all their household stuff and furniture, and left them 
to shift without it; but having no order, he let it all alone, 
left everything as they found it, and bringing the pinnace 
away, came on board without them. 

These two men made their number five, but the other 


3 2 4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


three villains were so much wickeder than these, that after 
they had been two or three days together, they turned their 
two new comers out of doors to shift for themselves, and 
would have nothing to do with them, nor could they for a 
good while be persuaded to give them any food. As for the 
Spaniards they were not yet come. 

When the Spaniards first came on shore, the business 
began to go forward. The Spaniards would have persuaded 
the three English brutes to have taken in their two country- 
men again, that, as they said, they might be all one family; 
but they would not hear of it. So the two poor fellows lived 
by themselves, and finding nothing but industry and appli- 
cation would make them live comfortably, they pitched their 
tents on the north shore of the island, but a little more on 
the west, to be out of the danger of the savages, who always 
landed on the east parts of the island. 

Here they built them two huts, one to lodge in, and the 
other to lay up their magazines and stores in ; and the Span- 
iards having given them some corn for seed, and especially 
some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, and 
planted, and enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them 
all, and began to live pretty well. Their first crop of corn 
was on the ground ; and though it was but a little bit of 
land which they had dug up at first, having had but a little 
time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with 
bread and other eatables ; and one of dhe fellows, being the 
the cook’s mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, 
puddings, and other such preparations as the rice, and the 
milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do. 

They were going on in this little thriving posture, when 
the three unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in 
mere humor, and to insult them, came and bullied them, and 
told them the island was theirs, that the governor, meaning 
me, had given them possession of it, and nobody else had 
any right to it, and d — n ’em they should build no houses 
upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent for 
them. 

The two men thought they had jested at first, asked them 
to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they were 


ROEINSON CRUSOE. 


3 r 5 


that they had built, and tell them what rent they demanded; 
and one of them merrily told them, if tney were ground- 
landlords, he hoped, if they built tenements upon their land, 
and made improvements, they would, according to the cus- 
tom of landlords, grant them a long lease, and bid them go 
fetch a scrivener to draw the writings. One of the three, 
damning and raging, told them they should see they were 
not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance, where 
the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he 
takes a fire-brand, and claps it to the outside of their hut, 
and very fairly set it on fire, and it would have been all 
burnt down in a few minutes, if one of the two had not run 
to the fellow, thrust him away, and trode the fire out with 
his feet, and that not without some difficulty too. 

The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man’s thrust- 
ing him away, that he returned upon him with a pole he 
had in his hand, and had not the man avoided the blow 
very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his days at 
once. His comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, 
run in after him, and immediately they came both out with 
their muskets, and the man that was first struck at with the 
pole, knocked the fellow down that had begun the quarrel, 
with the stock of his musket, and that before the other two 
could come to help him, and then seeing the rest come at 
them, they stood together, and presenting the other ends of 
their pieces to them, bade them stand off. 

The others had fire-arms with them too ; but one of the 
two honest men, bolder than his comrade and made desperate 
by his danger, told them, if they offered to move hand or 
foot they were dead men ; and boldly commanded them to 
lay down their arms. They did not indeed lay down their 
arms, but, seeing him so resolute, it brought them to a 
parley; and they consented to take their wounded man with 
them and be gone, and, indeed, it seems the fellow was 
wounded sufficiently with the blow. However, they were 
much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, that they 
did not disarm them effectually as they might have done, 
and have gone immediately to the Spaniards and given them 
an account how the rogues had treated them ; for the three 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


326 

villains studied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them 
some intimation that they did so. 

But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser 
part of their rogueries, such as treading down their corn, 
shooting three young kids and a she-goat, which the poor 
men had got to breed up tame for their store, and, in a word, 
plaguing them night and day in this manner, it forced the 
two men to such a desperation, that they resolved to fight 
them all three the first time they had a fair opportunity. In 
order to do this they resolved to go to the castle, as they 
called it (that was my old dwelling, where the three rogues 
and the Spaniards all lived together), at that time intending 
to have a fair battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to 
see fair play 5 so they got up in the morning, before day, and 
came to the place, and called the Englishmen by their names, 
telling a Spaniard, who answered, that they wanted to speak 
with them. 

It happened that, the day before, two of the Spaniards 
having been in the woods, had seen one of the two English- 
men, whom, for distinction, I call the honest men ; and he 
had made a sad complaint to the Spaniards, of the barbarous 
usage they had met with from their three countrymen ; and 
how they had ruined their plantation and destroyed their 
corn, that they had labored so hard to bring forward, and 
killed the milch-goat and their three kids, which was all they 
had provided for their sustenance ; and, that if he and his 
friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assist them again 
they should be starved. When the Spaniards came home 
at night, and they were all at supper, he took the freedom to 
reprove the three Englishmen, although in very gentle and 
mannerly terms; and asked them “how they could be so 
cruel, they being harmless, inoffensive fellows, and that they 
were only putting themselves in a way to subsist by their 
labor; and that it had cost them a great deal of pains to 
bring things to such perfection as they had ?” 

One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, “what had 
they to do there ? That they came on shore without leave and 
they should not plant or build upon the island ; it was none 
of tlieir ground.” “ Why,” said the Spaniard very calmly, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 2 7 


“Seignior Inglese, they must not starve.” The English- 
man replied like a true, rough-hewn tarpaulin, “ they might 
starve and be d — d, they should not plant nor build.” “But 
what must they do, then Seignior?” said the Spaniard. 
Another of the brutes returned, “ Do, d — n ’em, they should 
be servants and work for them.” “ But how can you expect 
that of them,” says the Spaniard, “ that are not bought with 
your money? You have no right to make -them servants.” 
The Englishman answered, “the island was theirs; the 
governor had given it to them, and no man had anything 
to do there but themselves and, with that, swore by his 
Maker, that they would go and burn all their new huts : they 
should build none upon their land. 

“Why, Seignior,” said the Spaniard, “by the same rule 
we must be your servants, too?” “Ah,” said the bold dog, 
and so you shall, too, before we have done with you,” mixing 
two or three G — d d — n’s in the proper intervals of his 
speech. The Spaniard only smiled at that, and made him no 
answer. However, this little discourse had heated them; 
and starting up, one says to the other, I think it was he they 
called Will Atkins,' “Come, Jack, let us go and have another 
brush with them; we will demolish their castle, I’ll warrant 
you ; they shall plant no colony in our dominions.” 

Upon this, they went all trooping away, with every man a 
gun, a pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent 
things among themselves, of what they would do to the 
Spaniards, too, when opportunity offered. But the Span- 
iards, it seems, did not so perfectly understand them, as 
to know all the particulars; only, that in general, they 
threatened them hard for taking the two Englishmen’s part. 

Whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that 
evening, the Spaniards said they did not know ; but it seems 
they wandered about the country part of the night, and then 
lying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they 
were weary, and overslept themselves. The case was this, 
they had resolved to stay till midnight, and so to take the two 
poor men when they were asleep, and, as they acknowledged 
afterwards, intended to set fire to their huts while they were 
in them, and either burn them in them, or murder them as 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


328 

they came out; and as malice seldom sleeps very sound, it 
was very strange they should not have been kept waking. 

However, as the two men had also a design upon them, as 
I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning 
and murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, 
that they were up and gone abroad, before the bloody- 
minded rogues came to their huts. 

When they came there and found the men gone, Atkins, 
who it seems was the forwardest man, called out to his 
comrades, “ Ha ! Jack, here ’s the nest, but, d — n ’em, the 
birds are flown.” They mused awhile to think what should 
be the occasion of their being gone abroad so soon, and 
suggested presently, that the Spaniards had given them 
notice of it, and with that they shook hands, and swore to 
one another that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. 
As soon as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell to 
work with the poor men’s habitation ; they did not set fire 
indeed to anything, but they pulled down both their little 
houses, and pulled them so limb from limb, that they left 
not the least stick standing, or scarce any sign on the ground 
where they stood. They tore all their little collected house- 
hold stuff in pieces, and threw everything about in such a 
manner, that the poor men afterwards found some of their 
things a mile off of their habitation. 

When they had done this, they pulled up all the young 
trees the poor men had planted, pulled up an enclosure they 
had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, in a 
word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a 
horde of Tartars would have done. 

The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, 
and had resolved to fight them wherever they had been, 
though they were but two to three ; so that had they met, 
there certainly would have been bloodshed among them, for 
they were all very stout, resolute fellows, to give them their 
due. 

But Providence took more care to keep them asunder, 
than they themselves could do to meet ; for, as if they had 
dogged one another, when the three were gone thither, the 
two were here ; and afterwards, when the two went back to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 2 9 


find them, the three were come to the old habitation again. 
We shall see their differing conduct presently. When the 
three came back, like furious creatures, flushed with the 
rage which the work they had been about had put them into, 
they came up to the Spaniards, and told them what they had 
done, by way of scoff and bravado ; and one of them step- 
ping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a couple 
of boys at play, takes hold of his hat, as it was upon his 
head, and giving it a twirl about, sneering in his face, says 
he to him, “And you, seignior, Jack Spaniard, shall have 
the same sauce, if you do not mend your manners.” The 
Spaniard, who, though a quiet, civil man, was as brave as a 
man could be desired to be, and withal a strong, well-made 
man, looked steadily at him for a good while, and then, hav- 
ing no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and 
with one blow of his fist knocked him down, as an ox is 
felled with a pole-axe ; at which one of the rogues, insolent 
at the first, fired his pistol at the Spaniard immediately. 
He missed his body indeed, for the bullets went through 
his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, and he 
bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniard believe 
he was hurt more than he really was, and that put him into 
some heat ; for before he acted all in a perfect calm. But 
now resolving to go through with his work, he stooped to 
take the fellow’s musket whom he had knocked down, and 
was just going to shoot the man, and had fired at him, when 
the rest of the Spaniards, being in the cave, came out, and 
calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the 
other two, and took their arms from them. 

When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made 
all the Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own country- 
men, they began to cool, and giving the Spaniards better 
words, would have had their arms again. But the Spaniards 
considering the feud that was between them and the other 
two Englishmen, and that it would be the best method they 
could take, to keep them from killing one another, told them 
they would do them no harm, and if they would live peace- 
ably, they would be very willing to assist and associate with 
them, as they did before ; but that they could not think of 


33 ° 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


giving them their arms again, while they appeared so 
resolved to do mischief with them to their own country- 
men, and had even threatened them all, to make them 
their servants. 

The rogues were now no more capable to hear reason than 
to act reason, and being refused their arms, they went raving 
away and raging like madmen, threatening what they would 
do, though they had no fire-arms. But the Spaniards, 
despising their threatening, told them they should take care 
how they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle, for 
if they did, they would shoot them as they would do raven- 
ous beasts, wherever they found them ; and if they fell into 
their hands alive, they should certainly be hanged. How- 
ever, this was far from cooling them, but away they went, 
raging and swearing like furies of hell. As soon as they 
were gone, came back the two men in passion and rage 
enough also, though of another kind; for having been at 
their plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed 
as above, it will easily be supposed that they had provoca- 
tion enough. They could scarce have room to tell their 
tale, the Spaniards were so eager to tell them theirs; and it 
was strange enough to find three men thus bully nineteen, 
and receive no punishment at all. 

The Spaniards indeed despised them, and especially hav- 
ing disarmed them, made light of all their threatenings; but 
the two Englishmen resolved to have their remedy against 
them, whatsoever pain it cost to find them out. 

But the Spaniards interposed here, too, and told them, 
that as they had disarmed them, they could not consent that 
they (the two) should pursue them with fire-arms, and per- 
haps kill them. “ But,” said the grave Spaniard, who was 
their governor, “we will endeavor to make them do you 
justice if you will leave it to us ; for as there is no doubt 
but what they will come to us again when their passion is 
over, being not able to subsist without our assistance, we 
promise you to make no peace with them, without having a 
full satisfaction for you. Upon this condition we hope you 
will promise to use no violence with them, other than in 
your own defense. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


33 1 

The two Englishmen yielded to this very awkwardly, and 
with great reluctance ; but the Spaniards protested they did 
it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make all easy 
at last. “ P'or,” said they, “we are not so many of us, here 
is room enough for us all, and it is great pity we should not 
all be good friends.” At length, they did consent, and 
waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with 
the Spaniards, for their own habitation was destroyed. 

In about five days’ time the three vagrants, tired with 
wandering, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly 
lived on turtle’s eggs all that while, came back to the grove, 
and finding my Spaniard, who, as I have said, was the gov- 
ernor, and two more with him walking by the side of the creek, 
they came up in a very submissive, humble, manner, and 
begged to be received again into the family. The Spaniards 
used them civilly, but told them they had acted so unnatur- 
ally by their countrymen, and so very grossly by them (the 
Spaniards) that they could not come to any conclusion, with- 
out consulting the two Englishmen and the rest; but, how- 
ever, they would go to them and discourse about it, and they 
should know in half an hour. It may be guessed that they 
were very hard put to it, for it seems, as they were to 
•wait this half hour for an answer, they begged he would 
send them out some bread in the meantime, which he did, 
and sent them at the same time a large piece of goat’s flesh, 
and a broiled parrot, which they ate very heartily, for they 
were hungry enough. 

After half an hour’s consultation they were called in, and 
a long debate had among them, their two countrymen charg- 
ing them with the ruin of all their labor, and a design to 
murder them ; all which they owned before, and therefore, 
could not deny now. Upon the whole, the Spaniard acted 
the moderator between them, and as they had obliged the 
two Englishmen not to hurt the three while they were 
naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and 
build their fellows two huts, one of the same, and the other 
of larger dimensions than they were before ; to fence their 
ground again where they had pulled up the fences, plant 
trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the land again 


332 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


for planting corn where they had spoiled it ; and in a word, 
to restore everything in the same state they found it, as near 
as they could, for entirely it could not be, the season for the 
corn, and the growth of the trees and hedges, not being pos- 
sible to be recovered. 

Well, they submitted to all this, and as they had plenty of 
provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, 
and the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably 
together, only that these three fellows could never be per- 
suaded to work, I mean for themselves, except now and then 
a little, just as they pleased. However, the Spaniards told 
them plainly, that if they would but live sociably and friendly 
together, and study in the whole the good of the plantation, 
they would be contented to work for them, and let them 
walk about, and be as idle as they pleased ; and thus, hav- 
ing lived pretty well together for a month or two, the Span- 
iards gave them arms again, and gave them liberty to go 
abroad with them as before. 

It was not above a week after they had these arms, and 
went abroad, but the ungrateful creatures began to be inso- 
lent and troublesome as before ; but, however, an accident 
happening presently upon this, which endangered the safety 
of them all, they were obliged to lay by all private resent- 
ments, and look to the preservation of their lives. 

It happened one night, that the Spaniard governor, as I 
call him, that is to say, the Spaniard, whose life I had saved, 
who was now the captain, or leader, or governor of the rest, 
found himself very uneasy in the night, and could by no 
means get any sleep; he was perfectly well in body, as he 
told me the story, only found his thoughts tumultuous, his 
mind run upon men fighting and killing of one another, but 
was broad awake, and could not by any means get any sleep. 
In short, he laid a great while, but growing more and more 
uneasy, he resolved to rise. As they lay, being so many of 
them, upon goats-skins, laid thick upon such couches and 
pads as they made for themselves, not in hammocks and 
ship-beds, as I did, who was but one, so they had little to 
do, when they were willing to rise, but to get up upon their 
feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 333 

pumps, and they were ready for going any way that their 
thoughts guided them. 

Being thus gotten up, he looked out, but being dark, he 
could see little or nothing; and besides, the trees which I 
had planted, as in my former account is described, and 
which were now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that he 
could only look up, and see that it was a clear, starlight 
night, and hearing no noise, he returned and laid him down 
again ; but it was all one, he could not sleep, nor could he 
compose himself to anything like rest, but his thoughts were 
to the last degree uneasy, and yet he knew not for what. 

Having made some noise with rising and walking about, 
going out and coming in, another of them waked, and call- 
ing, asked who it was that was up. The governor told him 
how it had been with him. “ Say you so ? ” said the other 
Spaniard, “such things are not to be slighted, I assure you. 
There is certainly some mischief working,” said he, “ near 
us.” And presently he asked him, “ Where are the English- 
men?” “They are all in their huts,” said he, “safe 
enough.” It seems, the Spaniards had kept possession of 
the main apartment, and had made a place where the three 
Englishmen, since their last mutiny always quartered by 
themselves, and could not come at the rest. “Well,” says 
the Spaniard, “there is something in it, I am persuaded 
from my own experience. I am satisfied our spirits em- 
bodied have a converse with, and receive intelligence from 
the spirits unembodied, and inhabiting the invisible world, 
and this friendly notice is given for our advantage, if we 
know how to make use of it. “Come,” said he, “let us go 
out and look abroad, and if we find nothing at all in it to 
justify the trouble, I will tell you a story to the purpose that 
shall convince you of the justice of my proposing it.” 

In a word, they went out to go up to the top of the hill, 
where I used to go, but they being strong and in good com- 
pany, not alone, as I was, used none of my cautions, to go 
up by the ladder, and then pulling it up after them, to go up 
a second stage to the top, but were going round through the 
grove, unconcerned and unwary, when they were surprised 
with seeing a light, as of fire, a very little way off from them, 


334 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

and hearing the voices of men, not of one, or two, but of a 
great number. 

In all the discoveries I had made of the savages landing 
on the island, it was my constant care to prevent them 
making the least discovery of there being any inhabitant 
upon the place ; and when, by any occasion they came to 
know it, they felt it so effectually, that they that got away 
were scarce able to give any account of it, for we disappeared 
as soon as possible ; nor did ever any that had seen me, 
escape to tell any one else, except it were the three savages 
in our last encounter, who jumped into the boat, of whom I 
mentioned, that I was afraid they should go home and bring 
more help. 

Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those 
men, that so great a number came now together, or whether 
they came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody 
errand, they could not, it seems understand; but whatever 
it was, it had been their business, either to have concealed 
themselves, as not to have seen them at all, much less to 
have let the savages have seen that there were any inhabi- 
tants in the place, or to have fallen upon them so effectually 
as that not a man of them should have escaped, which could 
only have been by getting in between them and their boats; 
but this presence of mind was wanting in them, which was 
the ruin of their tranquility for a great while. 

We need not doubt but that the governor and the man 
with him, surprised with this sight, ran back immediately, 
and raised their fellows, giving them an account of the 
imminent danger they were all in ; and they again as readily 
took the alarm, but it was impossible to persuade them to 
stay close within where they were, but they must run all out 
to see how things stood. 

While it was dark indeed, they were well enough, and 
they had opportunity enough for some hours to view them 
by the light of three fires they had made at a distance from 
one another. What they were doing they knew not, and what 
to do themselves they knew not. For, first the enemy were 
too many ; and secondly, they did not keep together, but were 
divided into small parties, and were onshore in several places. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


33S 

The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this 
sight; and, as they found that the fellows ran straggling all 
over the shore, they made no doubt, but first or last, some 
of them would chop in upon their habitation, or upon some 
other place, where they would see the token of inhabitants; 
and they were in great perplexity also, for fear of their flock 
of goats, which would have been little less than starving 
them, if they should have been destroyed. So the first 
thing they resolved upon, was to dispatch three men away 
before it was light, viz: two Spaniards and one English- 
man, to drive all the goats away to the great valley where 
the cave was, and if need were, to drive them into the very 
cave itself. 

Could they have seen the savages all together in one 
body, and at any distance from their canoes, they resolved, 
if they had been a hundred of them, to have attacked them; 
but that could not be obtained, for they were some of them 
two miles off from the others, and, as it appeared after- 
wards, were of two difierent nations. 

After having mused a great while on the course they 
should take, and beaten their brains in considering their 
present circumstances, they resolved at last, while it was 
dark, to send the old savage, Friday’s father, out as a spy, 
to learn, if possible, something concerning them, what they 
came for, and what they intended to do. The old man 
readily undertook it, and stripping himself quite naked, as 
most of the savages were, away he went. After he had been 
gone an hour or two, he brought word that he had been 
among them undiscovered, that he found they were two 
parties, and of two several nations who had war with one 
another, and had had a great battle in their own country, 
and that both sides having had several prisoners taken in 
the fight, they were by mere chance landed all in the same 
island, for the devouring their prisoners, and making merry; 
but their coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled 
all their mirth ; that they were in a great rage at one an- 
other, and that they were so near, that he believed they 
would fight again as soon as daylight began to appear; but 
he did not perceive that they had any notion of anybody’s 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


336 

being on the island but themselves. He had hardly made 
an end of telling his story, when they could perceive, by the 
unusual noise they made, that the two little armies were 
engaged in a bloody fight. 

Friday’s father used all the arguments he could to per- 
suade our people to lie close, and not be seen. He told 
them their safety consisted in it, and that they had nothing 
to do but lie still, and the savages would kill one another to 
their hands, and then the rest would go away; and it was so 
to a tittle. But it was impossible to prevail, especially upon 
the Englishmen, their curiosity was so importunate upon 
their prudentials, that they must run out and see the battle. 
However, they used some caution, too, viz : They did not 
go openly, just by their own dwelling, but went farther into 
the woods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they 
might securely see them manage the fight, and, as they 
thought, not to be seen by them ; but it seems the savages 
did see them, as we shall find hereafter. 

The battle was very fierce ; and, if I might believe the 
Englishmen, one of them said he could perceive that some 
of them were men of great bravery, of invincible spirit, and 
of great policy in guiding the fight. The battle, they said, 
held two hours, before they could guess which party would 
be beaten ; but then, that party which was nearest our peo- 
ple’s habitation began to appear weakest, and after some 
time more, some of them began to fly; and this put our men 
again into a great consternation, lest any of those that fled 
should run into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, 
and thereby involuntarily discover the place ; and that by 
consequence, the pursuers should do the like in search for 
them. Upon this, they resolved that they would stand 
armed within the wall, and whoever came into the grove, 
they should sally out over the wall and kill them ; so that, if 
possible, not one should return to give an account of it. 
They ordered also, that it should be done with their swords, 
or by knocking them down with the stock of the musket, but 
not by shooting them, for fear of the noise. 

As they expected, it fell out. Three of the routed army 
fled for life, and crossing the creek ran directly into the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


337 

place; not in the least knowing whither they went, but 
running as into a thick wood for shelter. The scout they 
kept to look abroad, gave notice of this within, with this 
addition, to our men’s great satisfaction, viz : that the 
conquerors had not pursued them, or seen which way 
they had gone. Upon this, the Spaniard governor, a 
man of humanity, would not suffer them to kill the three 
fugitives; but, sending three men out by the top of the hill, 
ordered them to go round and come in behind them, surprise, 
and take them prisoners, which was done. The residue of 
the conquered people fled to their canoes; and got off to 
sea. The victors retired and made no pursuit, or very little ; 
but drawing themselves into a body together, gave two great 
screaming shouts, which they supposed was by way of 
triumph, and so the fight ended. And the same day, about 
three o’clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their 
canoes ; and thus the Spaniards had their island again free 
to themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages 
for several years after. 

After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their 
den ; and, viewing the field of battle, they found about two- 
and-thirty dead men upon the spot. Some were killed with 
great, long arrows, some of which were found sticking in 
their bodies ; but most of them were killed with their great 
wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found on 
the field of battle, and as many bows with a great many 
arrows. These swords were strange, great, unwieldy things ; 
and they must be very strong men that used them. Most of 
those men, that were killed with them, had their heads 
smashed to pieces, as we may say ; or, as we call it in English, 
their brains knocked out, and several their arms and legs 
broken ; so that it is evident they fought with inexpressible 
rage and fury. We found not one wounded man that was 
not stone dead; for, either they stay by their enemy until 
they have quite killed him, or they carry all the wounded 
men, that are not quite dead, away with them. 

This deliverance tamed our Englishmen for a great while. 
The sight had filled them with horror, and the consequences 
appeared terrible to the last degree, even to them, if ever 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


338 

they should fall into the hands of those creatures, who would 
not only kill them as enemies, but kill them for food, as we 
kill our cattle. And they professed to me, that the thoughts 
of being eaten up like beef or mutton, although it was sup- 
posed it was not to be until they were dead, had something 
in it so horrible, that it nauseated their very stomachs, made 
them sick when they thought of it, and filled their minds 
with such unusual terror that they were not themselves for 
some weeks after. 

This, as I have said, tamed even the three English brutes 
I have been speaking of, and, for a great while after, they 
were very tractable and went about the common business of 
their whole society well enough; planted, sowed, reaped, 
and began to be all naturalized to the country. But sometime 
after this they fell all into such measures as brought them 
into a great deal of trouble. 

They had taken three prisoners, as I had observed, and 
these three being lusty, stout, young fellows, they made them 
servants and taught them to work for them, and as slaves 
they did well enough ; but they did not take their measures 
with them as I did by my man Friday, viz: to begin with 
them upon the principle of having saved their lives, and then 
instruct them in the rational principles of life, much less of 
religion, civilizing and reducing them by kind usage and 
affectionate arguings ; but, as they gave them their food every 
day, so they gave them their work too, and kept them fully 
employed in drudgery enough ; but they failed in this, because 
they never had them to assist them and fight for them, 
as I had my man Friday, who was as true to me as the very 
flesh upon my bones. 

But to come to the family part. Being all now good friends, 
for common danger, as I said above, had effectually recon- 
ciled them, they began to consider their general circum- 
stances ; and the first thing that came under their considera- 
tion was, whether, seeing the savages particularly haunted that 
side of the island, and that there were more remote and 
retired parts of it equally adapted to their way of living, and 
manifestly to their advantage, they should not rather remove 
their habitation, and plant in some more proper place for 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 339 

their safety, and especially for the security of their cattle 
and corn. 

Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they 
would not remove their habitation ; because, that some time 
or other, they thought they might hear from their governor 
again, meaning me ; and if I should send anyone to seek 
them, I should be sure to direct them to that side, where, if 
they should find the place demolished, they would conclude 
the savages had killed us all, and we were gone, and so our 
supply would go too. 

But as to their corn and cattle, they agreed to remove 
them into the valley where my cave was, where the land 
was as proper for both, and where indeed there was land 
enough. However, upon second thoughts, they altered one 
part of that resolution too, and resolved only to remove part 
of their cattle thither, and plant part of their corn there; 
and so, if one part was destroyed, the other might be saved. 
And one part of prudence they used, which it was very well 
they did, viz: that they never trusted those three savages, 
which they had prisoners, with knowing anything of the 
plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle they 
had there ; much less of the cave there, which they kept, in 
case of necessity, as a safe retreat, and whither they carried 
also the two barrels of powder which I had sent them at my 
coming away. 

But, however, they resolved not to change their habita- 
tion, yet they agreed that, as I had carefully covered it first 
with a wall or fortification, and then with a grove of trees ; 
so, seeing their safety consisted entirely in their being con- 
cealed, of which they were now fully convinced, they set to 
work -to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually 
than before. To this purpose, as I had planted trees (or 
rather thrust in stakes, which in time all grew up to be trees), 
for some good distance before the entrance into my apart- 
ment, they went on in the same manner, and filled up the 
rest of that whole space of ground, from the trees I had set, 
quite down to the side of the creek, where, as I said, I 
landed my floats, and even in the very ooze where the tide 
flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or any sign 


340 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that there had been any landing thereabout. These stakes, 
also, being of a wood very forward to grow, as I have noted 
formerly, they took care to have generally very much larger 
and taller than those which I had planted ; and as they grew 
apace, so they planted them so very thick and close together, 
that, when they had been three or four years grown, there 
was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into the 
plantation. And as for that part which I had planted, the 
trees were grown as thick as a man’s thigh; and among 
them they placed so many other short ones, and so thick, 
that, in a word, it stood like a pallisado, a quarter of a mile 
thick, and it was next to impossible to penetrate it, but with 
a little army to cut it all down ; for a little dog could hardly 
get between the trees, they stood so close. 

But this was not all, for they did the same by all the 
ground to the right hand, and to the left, and round even to 
the top of the hill; leaving no way, not so much as for them- 
selves to come out, but by the ladder placed up to the side 
of the hill, and then lifted up, and placed again from the 
first stage up to the top ; which ladder, when it was taken 
down, nothing but what had wings or witchcraft to assist it 
could come at them. 

This was excellently well contrived ; nor was it less than 
what they aftenvards found occasion for, which served to 
convince me that, as human prudence has the authority of 
Providence to justify it, so it has, doubtless, the direction of 
Providence to set it to work; and would we listen carefully 
to the voice of it, I am fully persuaded we might prevent 
many of the disasters, which our lives are now by our own 
negligence subjected to. But this by the way. 

I return to the story. They lived two years after this in 
perfect retirement, and had no more visits from the savages. 
They had indeed an alarm given them one morning, which 
put them into a great consternation, for some of the Span- 
iards being out early one morning on the west side, or 
rather the end of the island, which, by the way, was that end 
where I never went, for fear of being discovered, they were 
surprised with seeing above twenty canoes of Indians just 
coming on shore. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


341 


They made the best of their way home, in hurry enough ; 
and giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all 
that day and the next, going out only at night, to make 
observation. But they had the good luck to be mistaken ;- 
for, wherever the savages went, they did not land at that 
time in the island, but pursued some other design. 

And now they had another broil with the three English- 
men ; one of which, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage 
at one of the three slaves, which I had mentioned they had 
taken, because the fellow had not done something right 
which he bid him do, and seemed a little untractable in his 
showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt, in which he 
wore it by his side, and fell upon the poor savage, not to 
correct him, but to kill him. One of the Spaniards, who 
was by, seeing him give the fellow a barbarous cut with the 
hatchet, which he aimed at his head, but struck into his 
shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the poor creature’s 
arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not to murder the 
poor man, clapped in between him and the savage, to 
prevent the mischief. 

The fellow being enraged the more at this, struck at the 
Spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as 
he intended to serve the savage; which the Spaniard per- 
ceiving, avoided the blow, and with a shovel which he had 
in his hand (for they were all working in the field about 
their corn-land), knocked the brute down. Another of the 
Englishmen running at the same time to help his comrade, 
knocked the Spaniard down ; and then two Spaniards more 
came in to help their man, and a third Englishman fell in upon 
them. They had none of them any fire-arms, or any other 
weapons but hatchets and other tools, except this third 
Englishman ; he had one of my old rusty cutlasses, with 
which he made at the two last Spaniards, and wounded 
them both. This fray set the whole family in an uproar, 
and more help coming in, they took the three Englishmen 
prisoners. The next question was, what should be done 
with them ? They had been so often mutinous, and were so 
furious, so desperate, and so idle withal, that they knew not 
what course to take with them ; for they were mischievous 


342 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to the highest degree, and valued not what hurt they did to 
any man ; so that, in short, it was not safe to live with them. 

The Spaniard, who was governor, told them in so many 
words, that if they had been of his own country, he would 
have hanged them; for all laws and all governors were to 
preserve society; and those who were dangerous to the 
society ought to be expelled out of it; but as they were 
Englishmen, and that it was to the generous kindness of an 
Englishman that they all owed their preservation and deliv- 
erance, he would use them with all possible lenity, and would 
leave them to the judgment of the other two Englishmen, 
who were their countrymen. 

One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and said 
they desired it might not be left to them; “for,” said he, 
“ I am sure we ought to sentence them to the gallows; ” and 
with that he gave an account how Will Atkins, one of the 
three, had proposed to have all the five Englishmen join 
together, and murder all the Spaniards when they were in 
their sleep. 

When the Spaniard governor heard this, he called to Wil- 
liam Atkins : “ How, seignior Atkins,” said he, “ would you 

murder us all ? What have you to say to that ? ” That 
hardened villain was so far from denying it, that he said it 
was true, and “G — d d — n him, if they would not do it 
still, before they had done with them.” “Well, but, seignior 
Atkins,” said the Spaniard, “ what have we done to you, that 
you would kill us ? and what would you get by killing us ? 
and what must we do to prevent you killing us? Must we 
kill you, or you will kill us ? Why will you put us to the 
necessity of this, seignior Atkins,” said the Spaniard, very 
calmly, and smiling. 

Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the Spaniard’s mak- 
ing a jest of it, that had he not been held by three men, and 
withal had no weapons with him, it was thought he would 
have attempted to have killed the Spaniard in the middle of 
all the company. 

This hair-brained carriage obliged them to consider seri- 
ously what was to be done. The two Englishmen and the 
Spaniard who saved the poor savage, was of the opinion 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


343 

they should hang one of the three for an example to the 
rest ; and that, particularly, it should be he that had twice 
attempted to commit murder with his hatchet : and indeed, 
there was some reason to believe he had done it, for the 
poor savage was in such a miserable condition with the 
wound he had received, that it was thought he could not live. 

But the governor Spaniard still said, “No, it was an Eng- 
lishman that had saved all their lives, and he would never 
consent to put an Englishman to death, though he had mur- 
dered half of them; nay,” he said, “if he had been killed 
himself by an Englishman, and had time left to speak, it 
should be, that they would pardon him.” 

This was so positively insisted on by the governor Span- 
iard, that there was no gainsaying it ; and as merciful coun- 
sels are most apt to prevail where they are so earnestly 
pressed, so they all came into it; but then it was to be con- 
sidered what should be done to keep them from doing the 
mischief they designed ; for all agreed, governor and all, that 
means were to be used for preserving the society from dan- 
ger. After a long debate it was agreed, first, that they should 
be disarmed, and not permitted to have either gun, or pow- 
der, or shot, or sword, or any weapon, and should be turned 
out of the society, and left to live where they would and how 
they would, by themselves ; but that none of the rest, either 
Spaniards or English, should converse with them, speak 
with them, or have anything to do with them ; that they 
should be forbid to come within a certain distance of the 
place where the rest dwelt ; and that if they offered to com- 
mit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of 
the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to 
the society, they should die without mercy, and they would 
shoot them wherever they could find them. 

The governor, a man of great humanity, musing upon the 
sentence, considered a little upon it, and turning to the two 
honest Englishmen, said, “ Hold, you must reflect, that it 
will be long e’er they can raise corn and cattle of their own, 
and they must not starve ; we must, therefore, allow them 
provisions.” So he caused to be added, that they should 
have a proportion of corn given to them to last them eight 


344 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


months, and for seed to sow, by which time they might be 
supposed to raise some of their own ; that they should have 
six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids given them, as 
well for present subsistence, as for a store ; and that they 
should have tools given them for their work in the fields, 
such as six hatchets, an axe, a saw, and the like ; but they 
should have none of these tools, or provisions, unless they 
would swear solemnly, that they would not hurt or injure any 
of the Spaniards with them, or of their fellow Englishmen. 

Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them 
out to shift for themselves. They went away sullen and 
refractory, as neither contented to go away, or to stay ; but 
as there was no remedy, they went, pretending to go and 
choose a place where they would settle themselves, and 
some provisions were given them, but no weapons. 

About four or five days after, they came again for some 
victuals, and gave the governor an account where they had 
pitched their tents, and marked themselves out an habita- 
tion and plantation ; and it was a very convenient place 
indeed, on the remotest part of the island, N. E., much 
about the place where I landed in my first voyage, when I 
was driven out to sea, the Lord knows whither, in my 
attempt to surround the island. 

Here they built themselves two handsome huts, and con- 
trived them, in a manner, like my first habitation, being 
close under the side of a hill, having some trees growing 
already on three sides of it, so that by planting others it 
would be very easily covered from the sight, unless nar- 
rowly searched for. They desired some dried goat-skins 
for beds and covering, which were given them ; and, upon 
giving their word that they would not disturb the rest, or 
injure any of their plantations, they gave them hatchets, 
and what other tools they could spare ; some peas, barley, 
and rice for sowing ; and, in a word, anything they wanted 
but arms and ammunition. 

They lived in this separate condition about six months, 
and had gotten in their first harvest, though the quantity 
was but small, the parcel of land they had planted being but 
little ; for indeed, having all their plantation to form, they 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


345 


had a great deal of work upon their hands. And when they 
came to make boards, and pots, and such things, they were 
quite out of their element, and could make nothing of it; 
and when the rainy season came on, for want of a cave in 
the earth, they could not keep their grain dry, and it was in 
great danger of spoiling. And this humbled them much, 
so they came and begged the Spaniards to help them, which 
they very readily did, and in four days worked a great hole 
in the side of the hill for them, big enough to secure their 
corn, and other things from the rain ; but it was a poor 
place, at best, compared to mine, and especially as mine was 
then, for the Spaniards had greatly enlarged it, and made 
several new apartments in it. 

About three-quarters of a year after this separation, a new 
frolic took these rogues, which, together with the former 
villainy they had committed, brought mischief enough upon 
them, and had very near been the ruin of the whole colony. 
The three new associates began, it seems, to be weary of 
the laborious life they led, and that without hope of better- 
ing their circumstances ; and a whim took them that they 
would make a voyage to the continent from whence the 
savages came, and would try if they could not seize upon 
some prisoners among the natives there, and bring them 
home, so to make them do the laborious part of their work 
for them. 

The project was not so preposterous, if they had gone no 
farther ; but they did nothing and proposed nothing but had 
either mischief in the design, or mischief in the event. And 
if I may give my opinion, they seemed to be under a blast 
from heaven; for if we will not allow a visible curse to 
pursue visible crimes, how shall we reconcile the events of 
things with the divine justice? It was certainly an apparent 
vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy, that brought 
them to the state they were in ; and as they showed not the 
least remorse for the crime, but added new villainies to it, 
such as, particularly, the piece of monstrous cruelty of 
wounding a poor slave, because he did not, or perhaps could 
not, understand to do what he was directed, and to wound 
him in such a manner, as, no question, made him a cripple 


346 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicine 
could be had for his cure; and, what was still worse, the 
murderous intent, or, to do justice to the crime, the inten- 
tional murder, (for such, to be sure it was, as was afterwards 
the formed design they all laid, to murder the Spaniards in 
cold blood, and in their sleep.) 

But I leave observing, and return to the story. The three 
fellows came down to the Spaniards one morning, and in 
very humble terms desired to be admitted to speak with 
them. The Spaniards very readily heard what they had to 
say, which was this: That they were tired of living in the 
manner they did ; that they were not handy enough to make 
the necessaries they wanted ; and that, having no help, they 
found they should be starved ; but if the Spaniards would 
give them leave to take one of the canoes which they came 
over in, and give them arms and ammunition, proportioned 
for their defense, they would go over to the main, and seek 
their fortune, and so deliver them from the trouble of sup- 
plying them with any other provisions. 

The Spaniards were glad enough to be rid of them, but 
yet very honestly represented to them the certain destruc- 
tion they were running into; told them they had suffered 
such hardships upon that very spot, that they could, without 
any spirit of prophecy, tell them that they would be starved 
or be murdered, and bade them consider of it. 

The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if 
they stayed here, for they could not work, and would not 
work ; and they could but be starved abroad ; and if they 
were murdered, there was an end of them, they had no 
wives or children to cry after them; and, in short, insisted 
importunately upon their demand, declaring that they would 
go, whether they would give them any arms or no. 

The Spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if they 
were resolved to go, they should not go like naked men, and 
be in no condition to defend themselves ; and that, though 
they could ill spare their fire-arms, having not enough for 
themselves, yet they would let them have two muskets, a 
pistol, and a cutlass, and each man a hatchet, which they 
thought was sufficient for them. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


347 


In a word, they accepted the offer, and having baked them 
bread enough to serve them a month, and given them as 
much goat’s flesh as they could eat while it was sweet, and 
a great basket full of dried grapes, a pot full of fresh water, 
and a young kid alive to kill, they boldly set out in a canoe 
for a voyage over the sea, where it was at least forty miles 
broad. 

The boat was indeed a large one, and would have very 
well carried fifteen or twenty men ; and, therefore, was 
rather too big for them to manage ; but, as they had a fair 
breeze, and the flood-tide with them, they did well enough. 
They had made a mast of a long pole, and a sail of four 
large goat skins dried, which they had sowed or laced to- 
gether ; and away they went merrily enough. The Span- 
iards called after them, bon veyajo, and no man ever 
thought of seeing them any more. 

The Spaniards would often say to one another, and to the 
two honest Englishmen whe remained behind, how quietly 
and comfortably they lived now those three turbulent fellows 
were gone. As for their ever coming again, that was the 
remotest thing from their thoughts that could be imagined; 
when behold, after two-and-twenty days’ absence, one of the 
Englishmen being abroad upon his planting work, saw 
three strange men coming towards him at a distance, with 
guns upon their shoulders. 

Away ran the Englishman, as if he was bewitched, came 
frighted and amazed to the governor Spaniard, and told 
him they were all undone, for there were strangers landed 
upon the island, he could not tell who. The Spaniard, 
pausing awhile, said to him, “ How do you mean you 
cannot tell wlio? They are the savages, to be sure.” “No, 
no,” said the Englishman, “they are men in clothes, with 
arms.” “Nay, then,” said the Spaniard, “Why are you 
concerned ? If they are not savages, they must be friends, 
for their is no Christian nation upon earth, but will do us 
good rather than harm.” 

While they were debating thus, came the three English- 
men, and standing without the wood, which was new 
planted, hallooed to them. They presently knew their 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


348 

voices, and so all the wonder of that kind ceased. But now 
the admiration was turned upon another question, viz : “ What 
could be the matter, and what made them come back again ? ” 

It was not long before they brought the men in, and 
inquiring where they had been, and what they had been 
doing, they gave them a full account of their voyage in a few 
words, viz : that they reached the land in two days, or some- 
thing less, but finding the people alarmed at their coming, 
and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they 
durst not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward six or 
seven hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they 
perceived that the land they saw from our island was not 
the main, but an island ; that, entering that opening of the 
sea, they saw another island on the right hand north, and 
several more west; and being resolved to land somewhere, 
they put over to one of the islands which lay west, and went 
boldly on shore ; that they found the people very courteous 
and friendly to them, and that they gave them several roots, 
and some dried fish, and appeared very sociable ; and the 
women, as well as the men, were very forward to supply 
them with anything they could get for them to eat, and 
brought it to them a great way upon their heads. 

They continued here four days, and inquired as well as 
they could of them by signs, what nations were this way and 
that way ; and were told of several fierce and terrible people 
that lived almost every way, who, as they made signs to 
them, used to eat men. But, as for themselves, they said, 
that they never eat men or women, except only such as they 
took in the wars, and then they owned that they made a 
great feast, and eat their prisoners. 

The Englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that 
kind, and they told him about two moons ago, pointing to 
the moon, and then to two fingers ; and that their great 
king had two hundred prisoners now, which he had taken in 
his war, and they were feeding them to make them fat for 
the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty desirous to 
see those prisoners, but the other mistaking them, thought 
they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for 
their own eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


349 


the setting of the sun, and then to the rising, which was to 
signify, that the next morning at sun rising, they would 
bring some for them ; and, accordingly, the next morning 
they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave 
them to the Englishmen, to carry with them on their voyage, 
just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a 
seaport town to victual a ship. 

As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, 
their stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know 
what to do. To refuse the prisoners, would have been the 
highest affront to the savage gentry that offered them ; and 
what to do with them they knew not. However, upon some 
debates, they resolved to accept of them ; and in return, they 
gave the savages that brought them, one of their hatchets, * 
an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets, which, 
though they did not understand, they seemed extremely 
pleased with; and then tying the poor creatures’ hands 
behind them, they (the people) dragged the poor prisoners 
into the boat for our men. 

The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as 
they had them; or else they that gave them this noble pre- 
sent would certainly have expected that they should have 
gone to work with them, have killed two or three of them the 
next morning, and perhaps have invited the donors to dinner. 

But having taken their leave with all the respects and 
thanks that could well pass between people, where on either 
side they understood not one word they could say, they put 
off with their boat and came back towards the first island, 
where, when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners 
at liberty, there being too many of them for their occasion. 

On their voyage they endeavored to have some com- 
munication with their prisoners; but it was impossible to 
make them understand anything; nothing they could say to 
them, or give them, or do for them, but was looked upon as 
going about to murder them. They first of all unbound 
them; but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially 
the women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; 
for they immediately concluded they were unbound on pur- 
pose to be killed. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


35 ° 

If they gave them anything to eat, it was the same thing. 
Then they concluded it was for fear they should sink in 
flesh, and so not be fat enough to kill. If they looked at one 
of them more particularly, the party presently concluded it 
was to see whether he or she was fattest and fittest to kill. 
Nay, after they had brought them quite over, and began to 
use them kindly, and treat them well, still, they expected 
every day to make a dinner or supper for their new masters. 

When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable 
history or journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them 
“Where their new family was?” and being, told that they 
had brought them on shore and put them into one of their 
huts and were come up to beg some victuals for them, they, 
the Spaniards and the other two Englishmen, that is to say, 
the whole colony, resolved to all go down to the place and 
see them, and did so, and Friday’s father with them. 

When they came into the hut, there they sat all bound ; 
for when they had brought them on shore they bound their 
hands, that they might not take the boat and make their 
escape. There, I say, they sat, all of them stark naked. 
First, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well- 
shaped, straight and fair limbs, about thirty to thirty-five 
years of age ; and five women, whereof two might be from 
thirty to forty, two more not above four-or-five-and-twenty, 
and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden about sixteen or seven- 
teen. The women were well-favored, agreeable persons, 
both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, 
had they been perfect white, would have passed for very 
handsome women even in London itself; having pleasant, 
agreeable countenances and of a very modest behavior, 
especially when they came afterwards to be clothed and 
dressed, as they called it, though the dress was very indiffer- 
ent, it must be confessed; of which hereafter. 

The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to 
our Spaniards, who were, to give them a just character, men 
of the best behavior, of the most calm, sedate tempers and 
perfect good-humor that ever I met with, and, in particular, 
of the most modesty, as will presently appear. I say the 
sight was very uncouth, to see two naked men and five naked 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


35 1 

women, all bound together, and in the most miserable 
circumstances that human nature could be supposed to be, 
viz : to be expecting every moment to be dragged out and 
have their brains knocked out ; and then to be eaten up like 
a calf that is killed for a dainty. 

The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, 
Friday’s father, to go in and see first if he knew any of 
them, and then if he understood any of their speech. As 
soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at them, 
but knew none of them ; neither could any of them under- 
stand a word he said, or a sign he could make, except one 
of the. women. 

However, this was enough to answer the end, which was 
to satisfy them that the men into whose hands they had 
fallen, were Christians ; that they abhorred eating of men 
or women, and that they might be sure they would not be 
killed. As soon as they were assured of this, they discov- 
ered such joy, and by such awkward and several ways, as is 
hard to describe; for it seems they were of several nations. 

The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the 
next place, to ask them if they were willing to be servants, 
and to work for the men who had brought them away, to 
save their lives ; at which they all fell a-dancing, and pres- 
ently one fell to taking up this, and another that, or anything 
that lay next, to carry on their shoulders to intimate that 
they were willing to work. 

The governor, who found that the having women among 
them would presently be attended with some inconvenience, 
and might occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked 
the three men, what they intended to do with these women, 
and how they intended to use them — whether as servants, 
or as women? One of the Englishmen answered very 
boldly and readily, “ That they would use them as both.” 
To which the governor said, “ I am not going to restrain 
you from it, you are your own masters as to that. But this 
I think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels 
amongst you, and I desire it of you, for that reason only, 
viz : that you will all engage, that if any of you take any of 
these women as a woman or wife, that he shall take but one ; 


35 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and that having taken one, none else shall touch her ; for 
though we cannot marry any of you, yet it is but reasonable 
that, while you stay here, the woman any of you take should 
be maintained by the man that takes her, and should be his 
wife ; I mean,” says he, “ while he continues here ; and 
that none else shall have anything to do with her.” All this 
appeared so just, that everyone agreed to it without any 
difficulty. 

Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they 
designed to take any of them ? But everyone of them 
answered “No.” Some of them said they had wives in 
Spain, and the others did not like women that were not 
Christians, and all together declared that they would not 
touch one of them ; which was an instance of such virtue 
as I have not met with in all my travels. On the other 
hand, to be short, the five Englishmen took them everyone 
a wife, that is to say, a temporary wife, and so they set up 
a new form of living; for the Spaniards and Friday’s father 
lived in my old habitation, which they had enlarged exceed- 
inglv within. The three servants which were taken in the 
late battle of the savages lived with them, and these carried 
on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest with 
food, and assisting them in anything as they could, or as 
they found necessity required. 

But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, 
ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that 
two of them should not pitch upon the same woman, espe- 
cially seeing two or three of them were, without comparison, 
more agreeable than the other. But they took a good way 
enough to prevent quarreling among themselves ; for they 
set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, and 
they all went into the other hut, and drew lots among them 
who should choose first. 

He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the 
hut where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out 
her he chose ; and it was worth observing, that he who 
chose first took her that was reckoned the homeliest and 
the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among the 
rest, and even the Spaniards laughed at it. But the fellow 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


353 


considered, better than any of them, that it was application 
and business that they were to expect assistance in, as much as 
anything else ; and she proved the best wife of all the parcel. 

When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, 
and fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition 
returned upon them again, and they firmly believed that they 
were now going to be devoured; accordingly, when the 
English sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest 
set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took 
their leave of her with such agonies and such affection, as 
would have grieved the hardest heart in the world; nor was 
it possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them, that they 
were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the 
old man, Friday’s father, who immediately let them know 
that the five men, who had fetched them out one by one, had 
chosen them for their wives. 

When they had done, and the fright the women were in 
was a little over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards 
came and helped them ; and in a few hours they had built 
them every one a new hut, or tent, for their lodging apart; 
for those they had already were crowded with their tools, 
household-stuff and provisions. The three wicked ones had 
pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but 
both on the north shore of the island, so that they continued 
separate as before. And thus my island was peopled in 
three places ; and, as I might say, three towns were begun 
to be planted. 

And here it is very well worth observing, that, as it often 
happens in the world (what the wise ends of God’s provi- 
dence are in such a disposition of things, I cannot say) the 
two honest fellows had the two worst wives, and the three 
reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for 
nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good, or 
anyone else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and ingenious 
wives ; not that the two first were ill wives as to their tem- 
per or humor; for all the five were most willing, quiet, pas- 
sive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives ; 
but my meaning is, they were not alike capable, ingenious, or 
industrious, or alike cleanly and neat. 


354 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Another observation I must make, to the honor of a dili- 
gent application on one hand, and to the disgrace of a sloth- 
ful, negligent, idle temper, on the other, that when I came to 
the place, and viewed the several improvements, plantings, 
and management of the several little colonies, the two men 
had so far outgone the three, that there was no comparison. 
They had, indeed, both of them as much ground laid out for 
corn as they wanted ; and the reason was, because, accord- 
ing to my rule, nature dictated that it was to no purpose to 
sow more corn than they wanted, but the difference of the 
cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed of 
everything else, was easy to be seen at first view. 

The two men had innumerable young trees planted about 
their huts, that when you came to the place, nothing was to 
be seen but a wood, and though they had twice had their 
plantation demolished, once by their own countrymen, and 
once by the enemy, as shall be shown in its place, yet they 
had restored all again, and everything was thriving and 
flourishing about them. They had grapes planted in order, 
and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves 
never seen anything of that kind; and by their good order- 
ing their vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the 
others. They had also found themselves out a retreat in the 
thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a 
natural cave, as I had found, yet they made one with inces- 
sant labor of their hands, and where, when the mischief which 
followed happened, they secured their wives and children, so 
as they could never be found ; they having, by sticking innu- 
merable stakes and poles of wood, which, as I said, grew so 
easily, made the wood impassable, except in some places, 
where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then 
went on by ways of their own leaving. 

As to the three reprobates, as I justly called them, though 
they were much civilized by their new settlement, compared 
to what they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, hav- 
ing not the same opportunity ; yet one of the certain com- 
panions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was 
their idleness. It is true, they planted corn, and made 
fences, but Solomon’s words were never better verified than 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


355 

in them : “ I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it 
was all overgrown with thorns.” For when the Spaniards 
came to view their crop, they could not see it in some 
places for weeds. The hedge had several gaps in it, where 
the wild goats had gotten in and eaten up the corn ; perhaps 
here and there, a dead bush was crammed in to stop them 
out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable door 
after the steed was stolen. Whereas, when they looked on 
the colony of the other two, there was the very face of indus- 
try and success upon all they did ; there was not a weed to 
be seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges. 
And they on the other hand verified Solomon’s words in 
another place, “ That the diligent hand maketh rich;” for 
everything grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and 
without; they had more tame cattle than the other, more 
utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure 
and diversion too. 

It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and 
cleanly within doors, and having learned the English ways 
of dressing and cooking from one of the other Englishmen, 
who, as I said, was cook’s mate on board the ship, they 
dressed their husband’s victuals very nicely and well; 
whereas the others could not be brought to understand it. 
But then the husband, who, as I say, had been cook’s mate, 
did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three wives, 
they loitered about, fetched turtles’ eggs, and caught fish 
and birds. In a word, anything but labor, and they fared 
accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably, and 
the slothful hard and beggarly ; and so, I believe, generally 
speaking, it is all over the world. 

But now I come to a scene different from all that had 
happened before, either to them or to me, and the original 
of the story was this : 

Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes 
of Indians or savages, call them which you please; and 
there is no room to doubt that they came upon the old 
errand of feeding upon their slaves. But that part was now 
so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, that they 
did not concern themselves about it, as I did; but having 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


35 6 

been made sensible by their experience, that their only busi- 
ness was to lie concealed, and that if they were not seen by 
any of the savages, they would go off again quietly when 
their business was done, having as yet not the least notion 
of there being any inhabitants in the island. I say, having 
been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to 
give notice to all the three plantations, to keep within doors, 
and not show themselves, only placing a scout in a proper 
place to give notice when the boats went to sea again. 

This was without doubt very right ; but a disaster spoiled 
all these measures, and made it known among the savages 
that there were inhabitants there, which was in the end the 
desolation of almost the whole colony. After the canoes 
with the savages were gone off, the Spaniards peeped abroad 
again, and some of them had the curiosity to go to the place 
where they had been, to see what they had been doing. 
Here, to their great surprise, they found three savages left 
behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground; it was sup- 
posed they had either been so gorged with their human 
feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep, and would not stir 
when the others went, or they were wandered into the woods 
and did not come back in time to be taken in. 

The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and 
perfectly at a loss what to do. The Spaniard governor, as 
it happened, was with them, and his advice was asked, but 
he professed he knew not what to do ; as for slaves, they 
had enough already ; and as to killing them, they were none 
of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me 
they could not think of shedding innocent blood, for, as to 
them, the poor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded 
none of their property, and they thought they had no just 
quarrel against them, to take away their lives. 

And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, 
that let the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru 
be what they will, I never met with seventeen men of any 
nation whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so uni- 
versally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humored, 
and so courteous as these Spaniards ; and as to cruelty, they 
had nothing of it in their very nature, no inhumanity, no 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 357 

barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men 
of great courage and spirit. 

Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing 
the unsufferable usage of the three Englishmen ; and their 
justice and humanity appeared now in the case of the sav- 
ages, as above. After some consultation, they resolved upon 
this, that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible, 
these three men might be gone ; but then the governor Span- 
iard recollected that the three savages had no boat, and that 
if they were left to rove about the island, they would cer- 
tainly discover that there were inhabitants in it, and so they 
should be undone that way. 

Upon this, they went back again, and there lay the fellows 
fast asleep still ; so they resolved to waken them, and take 
them prisoners, and they did so. The poor fellows were 
strangely frighted when they were seized upon and bound, 
and afraid, like the women, that they should be murdered 
and eaten : for it seems those people think all the world does 
as they do, eating men’s flesh ; but they were soon made 
easy as to that, and away they carried them. 

It was very happy to them that they did not carry them 
home to their castle, I mean to my palace under the hill; 
but they carried them first to the bower, where was the chief 
of their country work, such as the keeping the goats, the 
planting the corn, etc., and afterwards, they carried them to 
the habitation of the two Englishmen. 

Here, they were set to work, though it was not much they 
had for them to do ; and whether it was by negligence in 
guarding them, or that they thought the fellows could not 
mend themselves, I know not, but one of them run away, 
and taking into the woods, they could never hear of him 
more. 

They had good reason to believe he got home again soon 
after, in some other boats or canoes of savages, who came 
on shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying 
on their revels as usual, went off again in two days’ time. 
This thought terrified them exceedingly ; for they concluded, 
and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellow 
came safe home among his comrades, he would certainly 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


353 

give them an account that there were people in the island, 
as also how few and weak they were.; for this savage, as I 
observed before, had never been told, and it was very happy 
he had not, how many there were, or where they lived; nor 
had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much 
less had they showed him any of their other retired places, 
such as the cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the 
two Englishmen had made, and the like. 

The first testimony they had that this fellow had given 
intelligence of them, was, that about two months after this, 
six canoes of savages, with about seven, or eight, or ten 
men in a canoe, came rowing along the north side of the 
island, where they never used to come before, and landed, 
about an hour after sunrise, at a convenient place, about a 
mile from the habitation of the two Englishmen, where this 
escaped man had been kept. As the Spaniard governor 
said, had they been all there, the damage would not have 
been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped ; 
but the case differed now very much, for two men to fifty 
was too much odds. The two men had the happiness to 
discover them about a league off, so that it was above an 
hour before they landed, and as they landed a mile from 
their huts, it was some time before they could come at 
them. Now having great reason to believe that they were 
betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the two slaves 
which were left, and cause two of the three men, whom they 
brought with the women, who it seems proved very faithful 
to them, to lead them with their two wives, and whatever 
they could carry away with them, to their retired place in 
the woods, which I have spoken of above, and there to bind 
the two fellows hand and foot until they heard farther. 

In the next place, seeing the savages were all come on * 
shore, and that they bent their course directly that way, 
they opened the fences where their milch-goats were kept, 
and drove them all out, leaving their goats to straggle into 
the woods, whither they pleased, that the savages might 
think they were all bred wild ; but the rogue who came with 
them was too cunning for that, and gave them an account of 
it all ; for they went directly to the place. 



DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


THE TWO ENGLISHMEN RETREATING WITH THEIR WIVES AND CHILDREN. 


Page 358 










ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


359 


When the two poor frighted men had secured their wives 
and goods, they sent the other slave they had of the three 
who came with the women, and who was at their place by 
accident, away to the Spaniards, with all speed, to give them 
the alarm, and desire speedy help; and in the meantime 
they took their arms, and what ammunition they had, and 
retreated towards the place in the wood, where their wives 
were sent, keeping at a distance yet, so they might see, if 
possible, which way the savages took. 

They had not gone far, but that, from a rising ground, 
they could see the little army of their enemies come on 
directly to their habitation, and in a moment more could see 
all their huts and household-stuff flaming up together, to 
their great grief and mortification ; for they had a very great 
loss, to them irretrievable, at least for some time. They 
kept their station for a while, until they found the savages, 
like wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place, rum- 
maging every way and every place they could think of, in 
search for prey, and in particular for the people, of whom 
it now plainly appeared they had intelligence. 

The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not 
secure where they stood, because as it was likely some of 
the wild people might come that way, so they might come 
too many together, thought it proper to make another retreat 
about half a mile farther, believing, as it afterwards happened, 
that the farther they strolled, the fewer would be together. 

The next halt was at the entrance into a very thick-grown 
part of the woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, 
which was hollow and vastly large ; and in this tree they 
both took their standing, resolving to see there what might 
offer. 

They had not stood there long, but two of the savages 
appeared running directly that way, as if they had already 
noticed where they stood, and were coming up to attack 
them; and a little way farther they spied three more coming 
after them, and five more beyond them, all coming the same 
way; besides which, they saw seven or eight more at a dis- 
tance, running another way; for in a word, they ran every 
way, like sportsmen beating for their game. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


360 

The poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they 
should stand and keep their posture or fly ; but, after a very 
short debate with themselves, they considered that, if the 
savages ranged the country thus, before help came, they 
might perhaps find out their retreat in the woods, then all 
would be lost ; so they resolved to stand them there, and if 
they were too many to deal with then they would get up to 
the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend 
themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted ; 
though all the savages that were landed, which was near 
fifty, were to attack them. 

Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether 
they should fire at the first two or wait for the three; and so 
take the middle party, by which the two and the five that 
followed would be separated ; and they resolved to let the 
two first pass by, unless they should spy them in the tree 
and come to attack them. The two first savages also con- 
firmed them in this regulation, by turning a little from them 
towards another part of the wood ; but the three, and the 
ifive after them, came forward directly to the tree ; as if they 
had known the Englishmen were there. 

Seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved 
to take them in a line as they came ; and, as they resolved 
to fire but one at a time, perhaps the first shot might hit 
them all three. To which purpose, the man who was to 
fire, put three or four small bullets into his piece, and, hav- 
ing a fair loop-hole, as it were, from a broken hole in the 
tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen ; waiting until 
they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he 
could not miss. 

While they were thus waiting and the savages came on, 
they plainly saw that one of the three was the runaway sav- 
age that had escaped from them, and they both knew him, 
distinctly; and resolved that, if possible, he should not 
escape, though they should both fire ; so the other stood 
ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at the first shot 
he should be sure to have a second. 

But the first was too good a marksman to miss his aim; 
for, as the savages kept near one another, a little behind in 


/ 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


361 

a line, — in a word, he fired and hit two of them directly. 
The foremost was killed outright ; being shot in the head. 
The second, who was the runaway Indian, was shot through 
the body, and fell, but was not quite dead. And the third 
had a little scratch on the shoulder, perhaps by the same 
ball that went through the body of the second ; and being 
dreadfully frightened though not much hurt, sat down upon 
the ground, screaming and yelling in a hideous manner. 

The five that were behind, more frightened with the noise 
than sensible of the danger, stood still at first, for the woods 
made the sound a thousand times louder than it really was, 
the echoes rattling from one side to another, and the fowls 
rising from all parts screaming and making, every sort, a 
several kind of noise, according to their kind ; just as it was 
when I fired the first gun that perhaps was ever shot off in 
that place since it was an island. 

However, all being silent again, and they not knowing 
what the matter was, came on unconcerned, until they came 
to the place where their companions lay in a condition mis- 
erable enough. And here the poor ignorant creatures, not 
sensible that they were within reach of the same mischief, 
stood all of a huddle over the wounded man, talking and, as 
maybe supposed, enquiring of him how he came to be hurt; 
and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a flash 
of fire first, and, immediately after that, thunder from their 
gods, had killed two and wounded him. This, I say, is 
rational ; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw 
no man near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their 
lives, or so much as heard of a gun ; neither knew they any 
thing of killing or wounding at a distance with fire and bul- 
lets. If they had, one might reasonably believe they would 
not have stood so unconcerned, in viewing the fate of their 
fellows, without some apprehensions of their own. 

Our two men, though, as they confessed to me, it grieved 
them to be obliged to kill so many poor creatures, who, at 
the same time had no notion of their danger ; yet, having 
them all thus in their power, and the first having loaded his 
piece again, resolved to let fly both together among them; 
and singling out, by agreement, which to aim at, they shot 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


362 

together, and killed, or very much wounded, four of them. 
The fifth, frighted even to death, though not hurt, fell with 
the rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, 
thought they had killed them all. 

The belief that the savages were all killed, made our two 
men come boldly out from the tree before they had charged 
their guns again, which was a wrong step ; and they were 
under some surprise when they came to the place, and found 
no less than four of the men alive, and of them two very 
little hurt, and one not at all. This obliged them to fall 
upon them with the stocks of their muskets ; and first they 
made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause 
of all the mischief, and of another that was hurt in his knee, 
and put them out of their pain ; then the man that was not 
hurt at all, came and kneeled down to them, with his two 
hands held up, and made piteous moans to them by gestures 
and signs for his life; but could not say one word to them 
that they could understand. 

However, they signed to him to sit down at the foot of a 
tree thereby; and one of the Englishmen, with a piece of 
rope-twine which he had, by great chance, in his pocket, 
tied his two feet fast together, and his two hands Dehind 
him, and there they left him, and with what speed they 
could, made after the other two, which were gone before; 
fearing they, or any more of them, should find the way to 
their covered place in the woods, where their wives and the 
few goods they had left lay. They came once in sight of 
the two men, but it was at a great distance. However, they 
had the satisfaction to se them cross over a valley towards 
the sea, the quite contra^ way from that which led to their 
retreat, which they were afraid of ; and being satisfied with 
that, they went back to the tree, where they left their pris- 
oner, who, as they supposed, was delivered by his comrades ; 
for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-yarn, with which 
they bound him, lay just at the foot of the tree. 

They were now in as great concern as before, not knowing 
what course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in 
what numbers ; so they resolved to go away to the place 
where their wives were, to see if all was well there, and to 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


363 

made them easy, who were in fright enough, to be sure ; for 
though the savages were their own country folk, yet they 
were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more for 
the knowledge they had of them. 

When they came there, they found the savages had been 
in the wood, and very near that place, but had not found it; 
for it was indeed inaccessible by the trees standing so thick 
as before, had not the persons seeking it been directed by 
those that knew it, which these did not. They found, there- 
fore, everything very safe, only the women in a terrible 
fright. While they were here, they had the comfort to have 
seven of the Spaniards come to their assistance. The other 
ten, with their servants, and old Friday (I mean Friday’s 
father), were gone in a body to defend their bower, and the 
corn and cattle that was kept there, in case the savages 
should have roved over to that side of the country; but they 
did not spread so far. With the seven Spaniards came one 
of the three savages, who, as I said, were their prisoners 
formerly ; and with them also came the savage, whom the 
Englishmen had left bound hand and foot at the tree; for it 
seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of the seven 
men, and unbound the eighth, and brought him along with 
them, where, however, they were obliged to bind him again, 
as they had the two others, who were left when the third 
ran away. 

The prisoners began now to be a burden to them ; and 
they were so afraid of their escaping, that they were once 
resolving to kill them all, believing they were under an abso- 
lute necessity to do so, for their owr-preservation. However, 
the Spaniard governor would not 7 .-, risent to it, but ordered 
for the present that they should be sent out of the way to 
my old cave in the valley, and be kept there with two Span- 
iards to guard them, and give them food for their subsist- 
ence, which was done; and they were bound there hand 
and foot for that night. 

When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so 
encouraged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay 
any longer there ; but taking five of the Spaniards and them- 
selves. with four muskets and a pistol among them, and two 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


364 

stout quarter-staves, away they went in quest of the savages. 
And first they came to the tree where the men lay that had 
been killed; but it was easy to see that some more of the 
savages had been there, for they had attempted to carry 
their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good 
way, but had given it over. From thence they advanced to 
the first rising ground, where they stood and saw their camp 
destroyed, and where they had the mortification still to see 
some of the smoke ; but neither could they here see any of 
the savages. They then resolved, though with all possible 
caution, to go forward towards their ruined plantation. But 
a little before they came thither, coming in sight of the sea 
shore, they saw plainly the savages all embarking again in 
their canoes, in order to be gone. 

They seemed sorry at first, and there was no way to come 
at them, to give them a parting blow ; but upon the whole, 
were very well satisfied to be rid of them. 

The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all 
their improvements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come 
and help them to rebuild, and to assist them with needful 
supplies. Their three countrymen, who were not yet noted 
for having the least inclination to any good, yet as soon 
as they heard of it (for they living remote eastward, knew 
nothing of the matter till all was over) came and offered 
their help and assistance, and did very friendly work for 
several days, to restore their habitation, and make necessa- 
ries for them. And thus, in a little time, they were set upon 
their legs again. 

About two days after this, they had the farther satisfac- 
tion of seeing three of the savages’ canoes come driving on 
shore, and at some distance from them, two drowned men ; 
by which they had reason to believe that they had met with 
a storm at sea, and had overset some of them, for it had 
blown very hard the very night after they went off. 

However, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand, 
enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what 
they had done, as of what had happened to them ; and to 
whet them on to another enterprise of the same nature, 
which they, it seems, resolved to attempt with sufficient 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


365 

force to carry all before them ; for, except what the first 
man had told them of inhabitants, they could say little to it 
of their own knowledge, for they never saw one man, and 
the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they had no 
other witness to confirm it to them. 

It was five or six months after this before they heard any 
more of the savages ; in which time our men were in hopes 
they had either forgot their former bad luck, or given over 
the hopes of better. When on a sudden, they were invaded 
with the most formidable fleet of no less than eight-and- 
twenty canoes full of savages, armed with bows and arrows, 
great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of war; 
and they brought such numbers with them that, in short, it 
put all our people into the utmost consternation. 

As they came on shore in the evening, and at the eastern- 
most side of the island, our men had that night to consult 
and consider what to do ; and, in the first place, knowing 
that their being entirely concealed was their only safety 
before, and would much more be so now, while the number 
of their enemies was so great, they therefore resolved first 
of all to take down the huts which were built for the two 
Englishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave, 
because they supposed the savages would go directly thither 
as soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, 
though they did not now land within two leagues of it. 

In the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats 
they had at the old bower, as I called it, which belonged to 
the Spaniards ; and in short, left as little appearance of 
inhabitants anywhere as was possible ; and the next morning 
early they posted themselves with all their force at the 
plantation of the two men, waiting for their coming. As 
they guessed, so it happened. These new invaders, leaving 
their canoes at the east end of the island, came ranging 
along the shore directly towards the place, to the number of 
two hundred and fifty, as near as our men could judge. Our 
army was but small indeed ; but that which was worse, they 
had not arms for all their number neither. The whole 
account, it seems, stood thus. First, as to the men. 

Seventeen Spaniards ; five Englishmen; one, old Friday, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


366 

or Friday’s father; three, the three slaves taken with the 
women, who proved very faithful; three other slaves who 
lived with the Spaniards. To arm these, they had eleven 
muskets; five pistols; three fowling-pieces; five muskets or 
fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from the mutinous 
seamen, whom I reduced; two swords; three old halberds. 

To their slaves they did not give either musket or fuzee, 
but they had everyone a halberd, or a long staff, like a 
quarter-staff, with a great spike of iron fastened into each 
end of it, and by his side a hatchet ; also every one of our 
men had hatchets. Two of the women could not be pre- 
vailed upon but they would come into the fight; and they 
had bows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from 
the savages when the first action happened, which I have 
spoken of, where the Indians fought with one another, and 
the women had hatchets too. 

The Spaniard governor, whom I have described so often, 
commanded the whole ; and William Atkins, who, though a 
dreadful fellow for wickedness, was a most daring, bold 
fellow, commanded under him. The savages came forward 
like lions, and our men, which was the worst of their fate, 
had no advantage in their situation; only that William 
Atkins, who now proved a most useful fellow, with six men, 
was planted just behind a small thicket of bushes, as an 
advanced guard, with orders to let the first of them pass by, 
and then fire into the middle of them, and as soon as he had 
fired, to make his retreat as nimbly as he could, round a 
part of the wood, and so come in behind the Spaniards 
where they stood, having a thicket of trees also before them. 

When the savages came on, they run straggling about 
every way in heaps, out of all manner of order, and William 
Atkins let about fifty of them pass by him ; then, seeing the 
rest come in a very thick throng, he ordered three of his men 
to fire, having loaded their muskets with six or seven bullets 
a piece, about as big as large pistol bullets. How many 
they killed or wounded they knew not, but the consternation 
and surprise was inexpressible among the savages ; they 
were frighted to the last degree, to hear such a dreadful 
noise, and see their men killed, and others hurt, but see no- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


367 

body that did it; when in the middle of their fright, William 
Atkins and his other three, let fly again among the thickest 
of them; and in less than a minute the first three, being 
loaded again, gave them a third volley. 

Had William Atkins and his men retired immediately, aS 
soon as they had fired, as they were ordered to do, or had 
the rest of the body been at hand to have poured in their 
shot continually, the savages had been effectually routed; 
for the terror that was among them came principally from 
this, viz: That they were killed by the gods with thunder 
and lightning, and could see nobody that hurt them; but 
William Atkins staying to load again, discovered the cheat. 
Some of the savages, who were at a distance, spying them, 
came upon them behind, and though Atkins and his men 
fired at them also, two or three times, and killed above 
twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded 
Atkins himself, and killed one of his fellow Englishmen 
with their arrows, as they did afterwards one Spaniard, and 
one of the Indian slaves who came with the women. This 
slave was a most gallant fellow, and fought most desper- 
ately, killing five of them with his own hand, having no 
weapon but one of the armed staves and a hatchet. 

Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and 
two other men killed, retreated to a rising ground in the 
wood; and the Spaniards, after firing three vollies upon 
them, retreated also ; for their number was so great, and they 
were so desperate, that though above fifty of them were 
killed, and more than so many wounded, yet they came on 
in the teeth of our men, fearless of danger, and shot their 
arrows like a cloud; and it was observed that their wounded 
men, who were not quite disabled, were made outrageous by 
their wounds, and fought like madmen. 

When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the 
Englishman that was killed behind them ; and the savages, 
when they came up to them, killed them over again in a 
wretched manner, breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with 
their clubs and wooden swords, like true savages ; but, find- 
ing our men were gone, they did not seem to pursue them, 
but drew themselves up in a kind of a ring, which is, it 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


368 

seems, their custom, and shouted twice in token of their 
victory. After which, they had the mortification to see several 
of their wounded men fall dying with the mere loss of blood. 

The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up 
together upon a rising ground, Atkins, though he was 
wounded, would have had him marched, and charged them 
again altogether at once ; but the Spaniard replied, “ Seig- 
nior Atkins, you see how their wounded men fight, let them 
alone till morning. All these wounded men will be stiff and 
sore with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood ; 
and so we shall have the fewer to engage,” 

The advice was good ; but William Atkins replied merrily, 
“ That’s true, seignior, and so shall I too ; and that’s the 
reason I would go on while I am warm.” “ Well, Seignior 
Atkins,” said the Spaniard “you have behaved gallantly, and 
done your part. We will fight for you, if you cannot come- 
on ; but I think it best to stay till morning.” So they waited. 

But as it was a clear, moonlight night, and they found the 
savages in great disorder about their dead and wounded 
men, and a great hurry and noise among them where they 
lay, they afterwards resolved to fall upon them in the night, 
especially if they could come to give them but one volley 
before they were discovered, which they had a fair opportu- 
nity to do ; for one of the two Englishmen, in whose quarter 
it was where the fight began, led them round between the 
woods, and seaside westward, and then turning short south, 
they came so near where the thickest of them lay, that 
before they were seen or heard, eight of them fired in among 
them, and did dreadful execution upon them. In half a 
minute more, eight others fired after them, pouring in their 
small shot in such a quantity, that abundance were killed 
and wounded ; and all this while they were not able to see 
who hurt them, or which way to fly. 

The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition ; 
and then divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved 
to fall in among them altogether. They had in each body 
eight persons, that is to say, twenty-four, whereof were 
twenty-two men, and the two women, who, by the way, 
fought desperately. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


369 

They divided the fire-arms equally in each party; and so 
of the halberds and staves. They would have had the 
women keep back ; but they said they were resolved to die 
with their husbands. Having thus formed their little army, 
they marched out from among the trees and came up to 
the teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loud as 
they could. The savages stood all together, but were in the 
utmost confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting 
from three quarters together. They would have fought if 
they had seen us ; and, as soon as we came near enough to 
be seen, some arrows were shot; and poor old Friday was 
wounded, though not dangerously. But our men gave them 
no time ; but, running up to them, fired among them three 
ways and then fell in with the butt-ends of their muskets, 
their swords, armed staves and hatchets, and laid about 
them so well that, in a word, they set up a dismal screaming 
and howling, flying to save their lives which way soever they 
could. 

Our men were tired with the execution; and killed or 
mortally wounded, in the two fights, about one hundred and 
eighty of them. The rest, being frightened out of their 
wits, scoured through the woods and over the hills, with all 
the speed and fear that nimble feet could help them to do; 
and as we did not trouble ourselves much to pursue them, 
they got all together to the seaside, where they landed and 
where their canoes lay. But their disaster was not at an end 
yet; for it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from 
the seaward; so that it was impossible for them to go off, 
nay, the storm continuing all night ; when the tide came up 
their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the 
sea so high upon the shore that it required infinite toil to 
get them off. And some of them were even dashed to pieces 
against the beach, or against one another. 

Our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest 
that night ; but having refreshed themselves as well as they 
could, they resolved to march to that part of the island 
where the savages were fled, and see what posture they were 
in. This necessarily led them over the place where the 
fight had been, and where they found several of the poor 


37o 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


creatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life. A 
sight disagreeable enough to generous minds ; for a truly 
great man, though obliged by the law of battle to destroy 
his enemy, takes no delight in his misery. 

However, there was no need to give any orders in this 
case; for their own savages, who were their servants, dis- 
patched those poor creatures with their hatchets. 

At length they came in view of the place where the more 
miserable remains of the savages’ army lay ; where there 
appeared about an hundred still. Their posture was gen- 
erally sitting upon the ground, with their knees up towards 
their mouth, and the head put between the two hands, lean- 
ing down upon the knees. 

When our men came within tw r o musket shots of them, 
the Spaniard governor ordered two muskets to be fired with- 
out ball, to alarm them. This he did, that by their counte- 
nance he might know what to expect, viz : whether they were 
still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten as to be dis- 
pirited and discouraged, and so he might manage accordingly. 

This stratagem took ; for, as soon as the savages heard 
the first gun, and saw the flash of the second, they started 
up from their feet in the greatest consternation imaginable; 
and as our men advanced swiftly towards them, they all ran 
screaming and yawling away, with a kind of a howling noise, 
which our men did not understand, and had never heard 
before ; and thus they ran up the hills into the country. 

At first, our men had much rather the weather had been 
calm, and they had all gone away to sea; but they did not 
then consider that this might probably have been the occa- 
sion of their coming again in such multitudes as not to be 
resisted, or, at least, to come so many, and so often, as 
would quite desolate the island, and starve them. Will 
Atkins, therefore, who, notwithstanding his wound, kept 
always with them, proved the best counsellor in this case. 
His advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and clap 
in between them and their boats, and so deprive them of the 
capacity of ever returning any more to plague the island. 

They consulted long about this, and some were against it, 
for fear of making the wretches fly to the woods, and live 






THE SPANIARDS AND ENGLISHMEN BURNING THE INDIANS’ BOATS. 


Page 371 





ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


37 1 


there desperate ; and so they should have them to hunt like 
wild beasts, be afraid to stir out about their business, and 
have their plantations continually rifled, all their tame goats 
destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of continual 
distress. 

Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with a 
hundred men, than with a hundred nations ; that, as they 
must destroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or 
be all of them destroyed themselves. In a word, he showed 
them the necessity of it so plainly, that they all came into 
it ; so they went to work immediately with the boats, and 
getting some dry wood together from a dead tree, they tried 
to set some of them on fire, but they were so wet that they 
would not burn ; however, the fire so burned the upper part, 
that it soon made them unfit for swimming in the sea as 
boats. When the Indians saw what they were about, some 
of them came running out of the woods, and coming as near 
as they could to our men, kneeled down, and cried, “ Oa, Oa, 
Waramoka,” and some other words of their language, which 
none of the others understood anything of; but as they made 
pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy to understand 
they begged to have their boats spared, and that they would 
be gone and never come there again. 

But our men were now satisfied that they had no way to 
preserve themselves, or to save their colony, but effectually 
to prevent any of these people from ever going home again ; 
depending upon this, that if ever so much as one of them got 
back into their country to tell the story, the colony was un- 
done ; so that, letting them know that they should not have 
any mercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and destroyed 
them every one, that the storm had not destroyed before ; at 
the sight of which,, the savages raised a hideous cry in the 
woods, which our people heard plain enough ; after which, 
they ran about the island like distracted men ; so that, in a 
word, our men did not really know at first what to do with 
them. 

Nor did the Spaniards, with all their prudence, consider 
that, while they made those people thus desperate, they 
ought to have kept good guard at the same time upon their 


372 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


plantations ; for though, it is true, they had driven away their 
cattle, and the Indians did not find out their main retreat, I 
mean my old castle at the hill, nor the cave in the valley, yet 
they found out my plantation at the bower, and pulled it all 
to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod all 
the corn under foot; tore up the vines and grapes, being 
just then almost ripe, and did to our men an inestimable 
damage, though to themselves not one farthing’s-worth of 
service. 

Though our men were able to fight them upon all occa- 
sions, yet they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt 
them up or down ; for as they were too nimble of foot for 
our men, when they found them single, so our men dared 
not go about single, for fear of being surrounded with their 
numbers. The best was, they had no weapons; for though 
they had bows, they had no arrows left, nor any materials to 
make any, nor had they any edged tool or weapon among 
them. 

The extremity and distress they were reduced to was 
great, and indeed deplorable ; but at the same time, our men 
were also brought to very bad circumstances by them ; for 
though their retreats were preserved, yet their provision 
was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled, and what to do, or 
which way to turn themselves, they knew not. The only 
refuge they had now, was the stock of cattle they had in the 
valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there ; 
and the plantation of the three Englishmen, William Atkins 
and his comrades, who were now reduced to two, one of 
them being killed by an arrow, which struck him on the side 
of his head, just under the temple, so that he never spoke 
more ; and it was very remarkable, that this was the same 
barbarous fellow who cut the poor savage slave with his 
hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murdered all 
the Spaniards. 

I looked upon this case to have been worse at this time 
than mine was at any time, after I first discovered the grains 
of barley and rice, and got into the manner of planting and 
raising my corn, and my tame cattle ; for now they had, as I 
may say, a hundred wolves upon the island, which would 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 373 

devour everything they could come at, yet could very hardly 
be come at themselves. 

The first thing they concluded, when they saw what their 
circumstances were, was, that they would, if possible, drive 
them up to the farther part of the island, south-west, that if 
any more savages came on shore they might not find one 
another. Then, that they would daily hunt and harrass 
them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till 
they had reduced their number; and if they could at last 
tame them, and bring them to anything, they would give 
them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their 
daily labor. 

In order to this, they so followed them, and so terrified 
them with their guns, that, in a few days, if any of them fired 
a gun at an Indian, if he did not hit him, yet he would fall 
down for fear ; and so dreadfully frighted they were, that 
they kept out of sight farther and farther, till at last our men 
following them, and every day almost killing and wounding 
some of them, they kept up in the woods and hollow places 
so much, that it reduced them to the utmost misery for want 
of food, and many were afterwards found dead in the woods, 
without any hurt, but merely starved to death. 

When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and 
pity moved them; especially the Spaniard governor, who 
was the most gentlemanly, generous-minded man that ever I 
met with in my life ; and he proposed, if possible, to take 
one of them alive, and bring him to understand what they 
meant, so far as to be able to act as interpreter, and to go 
among them, and see if they might be brought to some con- 
ditions, that might be depended upon, to save their lives, 
and to do us no spoil. 

It was some time before any of them could be taken ; but 
being weak and half starved, one of them was at last sur- 
prised and made a prisoner. He was sullen at first, and 
would neither eat nor drink; but finding himself kindly 
used, and victuals given him, and no violence offered him, 
he at last grew tractable, and came to himself. 

They brought old Friday to him, who talked often with 
him, and told him how kind the others would be to them all; 


374 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that they would not only save their lives, but would give 
them a part of the island to live in, provided they would 
give satisfaction that they would keep in their own bounds, 
and not come beyond it, to injure or prejudice others, and 
that they should have corn given them to plant and make 
it grow for their bread, and some bread given them for their 
present subsistence; and old Friday bade the fellow go and 
talk with the rest of his countrymen, and see what they said 
to it, assuring them that if they did not agree immediately, 
they should be all destroyed. 

The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in 
number to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at 
the first offer, and begged to have some food given them; 
upon which, twelve Spaniards and two Englishmen well- 
armed, with three Indian slaves and old Friday, marched to 
the place where they were. The three Indian slaves carried 
them a large quantity of bread, some rice boiled up to cakes, 
and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and they were 
ordered to go to the side of a hill, where they sat down, ate 
the provisions very thankfully, and were the most faithful 
fellows to their words that could be thought of; for, except 
when they came to beg victuals and directions, they never 
came out of their bounds ; and there they lived when I came 
to the island, and I went to see them. 

They had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, 
breed tame goats, and milk them; they wanted nothing but 
wives, and they soon would have been a nation. They were 
confined to a neck of land, surrounded with high rocks 
behind them, and lying plain towards the sea before them, 
on the south-east corner of the island. They had land 
enough, and it was very good and fruitful; they had a piece 
of land about a mile and a half broad, and three or four 
miles in length. 

Our men taught them to make wooden spades, such as I 
made for myself, and gave them among them twelve hatchets, 
and three or four knives ; and there they lived the most sub- 
jected, innocent creatures that evet were heard of. 

After this, the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquility with 
respect to the savages, till I came to revisit them, which 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


375 

was above two years. Not, but that now and then some 
canoes of savages came on shore for their triumphal, unnat- 
ural feasts ; but as they were of several nations, and perhaps 
had never heard of those that came before, or the reason of 
it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their coun- 
trymen ; and if they had, it would have been very hard to 
have found them out. 

Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all that hap- 
pened to them, to my return, at least that was worth notice. 
The Indians or savages were wonderfully civilized by them, 
and they frequently went among them, but forbid, on pain 
of death, any of the Indians coming to them, because they 
would not have their settlement betrayed again. 

One thing was very remarkable, viz: that they taught the 
savages to make wicker-work, or baskets ; but they soon 
outdid their masters; for they made abundance of most 
ingenious things in wicker-work, particularly all sorts of 
baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, etc., as also chairs to 
sit on, stools, beds, couches, and abundance of other things, 
being very ingenious at such work, when they were once 
put in the way of it. 

My coming was a particular relief to these people, because 
we furnished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, 
pick-axes, and all things of that kind, which they could 
want. 

With the help of these tools they were so very handy, 
that they came at last to build up their huts, or our houses, 
very handsomely; raddling or working it up like basket- 
work all the way round, which was a very extraordinary 
piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd, but was an exceed- 
ing good fence, as well against heat, as against all sorts of 
vermin. And our men were so taken with it, that they got 
the wild savages to come and do the like for them; so that 
when I came to see the two Englishmen’s colonies, they 
looked, at a distance, as if they lived all like bees in a hive. 
And as for Will Atkins, who was now become a very indus- 
trious, necessary, and sober fellow, he had made himself 
such a tent of basket-work as I believe was never seen. It 
was one hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 7 6 

I measured by my steps ; the walls were as close worked as 
a basket, in panels or squares, of thirty-two in number, and 
very strong, standing about seven feet high. In the middle 
was another, not above twenty-two paces round, but built 
stronger, being eight-square in its form; and in the eight 
corners stood eight very strong posts, round the top of 
which he laid strong pieces pinned together with wooden 
pins, from which he raised a pyramid for the roof, of eight 
rafters, very handsome, I assure you, and joined together 
very well, though he had no nails, and only a few iron 
spikes, which he made himself too, out of the old iron that I 
had left there ; and indeed, this fellow showed abundance 
of ingenuity in several things, which he had no knowledge 
of. He made him a forge, with a pair of wooden bellows to 
blow the fire ; he made himself charcoal for his work, and 
he formed out of one of the iron crows a middling good 
anvil to hammer upon ; in this manner he made many things, 
but especially hooks, staples, and spikes, bolts and hinges. 
But to return to the house ; after he had pitched the roof of 
his innermost tent, he worked it up between the rafters with 
basket-work so firm, and thatched that over again so ingen- 
iously with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, 
which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if it had 
been tiled or slated. Indeed, he owned that the savages 
made the basket-work for him. 

The outer circuit was covered, as a lean-to, all round this 
inner apartment, and long rafters lay from the two-and- 
thirty angles to the top of the posts of the inner house, 
being about twenty foot distance ; so that there was a space 
like a walk within the outer wicker-wall, and without the 
inner, near twenty foot wide. 

The inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker- 
work, but much fairer, and divided it into six apartments, so 
that he had six rooms on a floor: and out of every one of 
these there was a door, first into the entry, or coming into 
the main tent, and another door into the space or walk that 
was round it ; so that walk was also divided into six equal 
parts, which served not only for retreat, but to store up any 
necessaries which the family had occasion for. These six 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


377 

spaces not taking up the whole circumference, what other 
apartments the outer circle had, were thus ordered. As 
soon as you were in at the door of the outer circle, you had 
a short passage straight before you to the door of the inner 
house, but on either side was a wicker partition, and a door 
in it, by which you went, first, into a large room, or store- 
house, twenty foot wide, and about thirty foot long, and 
through that into another not quite so long ; so that in the 
outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were 
only to be come at through the apartments of the inner tent, 
and served as closets or retiring rooms to the respective 
chambers of the inner circle ; and four large warehouses or 
barns, or what you please to call them, which went in 
through one another, two on either hand of the passage, 
that led through the outer door to the inner tent. 

Such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was never £een in 
the world, nor a house or tent so neatly contrive^ much 
less so built. In this great bee-hive lived the three families, 
that is to say, Will Atkins, and his companion. The third 
was killed, but his wife remained with three children; for 
she was, it seems, big with child when he died, and the 
other two were not at all backward to give the widow her 
full share of everything, I mean, as to their corn, milk, 
grapes, etc., and when they killed a kid, or found a turtle on 
the shore ; so that they all lived well enough, though it was 
true they were not so industrious as the other two, as has 
been observed already. 

One thing, however, cannot be omited, viz : That is for 
religion, I don’t know that there was anything of that kind 
among them. They pretty often indeed, put one another in 
mind that there was a God, by the very common method of 
seamen, viz: swearing by his name. Nor were their poor, 
ignorant, savage wives much the better for having been mar- 
ried to Christians, as we must call them ; for as they knew 
very little of God themselves, so they were utterly incapable 
of entering into any discourse with their wives about a God, 
or to talk anything to them concerning religion. 

The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the 
wives had made from them, was that they had taught them 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


378 

to speak English pretty well; and all the children they had, 
which were near twenty in all, were taught to speak Eng- 
lish, too, from their first learning to speak, though they at 
first spoke it in a very broken manner, like their mothers. 
There were none of these children above six years old when 
I came thither, for it was not much above seven years that 
they had fetched these five savage ladies over; but they had 
all been pretty fruitful, for they had all children more or less. 
I think the cook’s mate’s wife was big of her sixth child; 
and the mothers were all of a good sort of well-governed, 
quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to one 
another, mighty observant and subject to their masters, — I 
cannot call them husbands,— and wanted nothing but to be 
well instructed in the Christian religion, and to be legally 
married, — both which were happily brought about afterwards 
by my means, or, at least, in consequence of my coming 
among them. 

Having thus given an account of the colony in general, and 
pretty much of my five runagate Englishmen, I must say 
something of the Spaniards, who were the main body of the 
family, and in whose story there are some incidents, also, 
remarkable enough. 

I had a great many discourses with them about their cir- 
cumstances when they were among the savages. They told 
me readily that they had no instances to give of their appli- 
cation or ingenuity in that country; that they were a poor, 
miserable, dejected handful of people; that if means had 
been put into their hands, they had yet so abandoned them- 
selves to despair, and so sunk under the weight of their 
misfortunes, that they thought of nothing but starving. One 
of them, a grave and very sensible man, told me he was con- 
vinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the part of 
wise men to give up themselves to their misery, but always 
to take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well for 
present support as for future deliverance. He told me that 
grief was the most senseless, insignificant passion in the 
world; for that it regarded only things past, which were 
generally impossible to be recalled or to be remedied, but 
had no view to things to come, and had no share in anything 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


379 


that looked like deliverance, but rather added to the afflic- 
tion than proposed a remedy. And upon this, he repeated a 
Spanish proverb, which, though I cannot repeat in just the 
same words that he spoke in, yet I remember I made it into 
an English proverb of my own, thus : 

** In trouble, to be troubled 
Is to have your trouble doubled.” 

He ran on, then, in remarks upon all the little improve- 
ments I had made in my solitude, — my unwearied applica- 
tion, as he called it, and how I had made a condition, which, 
in its circumstances, was at first much worse than theirs, a 
thousand times more happy than theirs was even now, when 
they were all together. He told me it was remarkable that 
Englishmen had a greater presence of mind in their distress 
than any people that ever he met with ; that their unhappy 
nation, and the Portuguese, were the worst men in the 
world to struggle with misfortunes ; for their first step in 
dangers, after the common efforts are over, was always to 
despair, lie down under it and die, without rousing their 
thoughts up to proper remedies for escape. 

I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that 
they were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without 
supply of food, or of present sustenance, till they could pro- 
vide ; that it is true I had this disadvantage and discomfort, 
that I was alone ; but then, the supplies I had providentially 
thrown into my hands by the unexpected driving of the ship 
on shore, was such a help as would have encouraged any 
creature in the world to have applied himself as I had done. 
“ Seignior,” said the Spaniard, “ had we poor Spaniards 
been in your case, we should never have gotten half those 
things out of the ship, as you did. Nay,” said he, “we 
should never have found means to have gotten a raft to 
carry them, or to have gotten the raft on shore without boat 
or sail ; and how much less should we have done,” said he, 
“if any of us had been alone?” Well, I desired him to 
abate his compliment, and go on with the history of their 
coming on shore, where they landed. He told me they un- 
happily landed at a place where there were people without 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


380 

provisions ; whereas, had they had the common sense to 
have put off to sea again, and gone to another island a little 
farther, they had found provisions, though without people, 
there being an island that way, as they had been told, where 
there was provisions, though no people, — that is to say, that 
the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there, and 
had filled the island with goats and hogs at several times, 
where they have bred in such multitudes, and where turtle 
and sea-fowls were in such plenty that they could have been 
in no want of flesh, though they had found no bread; 
whereas, here they were only sustained with a few roots and 
herbs, which they understood not, and which had no sub- 
stance in them, and which the inhabitants gave them spar- 
ingly enough, and who could treat them no better, unless 
they would turn cannibals and eat men’s flesh, which was 
the great dainty of their country. 

They gave me an account how many ways they strove to 
civilize the savages they were with, and to teach them 
rational customs in the ordinary way of living, but in vain; 
and how they retorted it upon them, as unjust, that they who 
came there for assistance and support, should attempt to set 
up for instructors of those that gave them bread ‘/intimating, 
it seems, that none should set up for the instructors of 
others, but those who could live without them. 

They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they 
were driven to; how sometimes they were many ways with- 
out any food at all ; the island they were upon being inhabit- 1 
ed by a sort of savages that lived more indolent, and for 
that reason were less supplied with the necessaries of life, 
than they had reason to believe others were in the same part 
of the world ; and yet they found that these savages were 
less ravenous and voracious than those who had better sup- 
plies of food. 

Also, they added that they could not but see with what 
demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing provi- 
dence of God directs the events of things in the world, 
which they said appeared in their circumstances; for if 
pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barren- 
ness of the country where they were, they had searched after 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 381 

a better place to live in ; they had then been out of the way 
of the relief that happened to them by my means. 

Then they gave me an account, how the savages whom 
they lived among expected them to go out with them into 
their wars ; and it was true, that, as they had fire-arms with 
them, had they not had the disaster to lose their ammunition, 
they should not have been serviceable only to their friends, 
but have made themselves terrible both to friends and ene- 
mies ; but, being without powder and shot, and yet in a con- 
dition that they could not in reason deny to go out with 
their landlords to their wars, when they came into the field 
of battle, they were in a worse condition than the savages 
themselves ; for they neither had bows or arrows, nor could 
they use those the savages gave them; so that they could do 
nothing but stand still, and be wounded with arrows, till they 
came up to the teeth of their enemy; and then indeed the 
three halberds they had were of use to them; and they 
would often drive a whole little army before them with those 
halberds and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their 
muskets : but that for all this, they were sometimes sur- 
rounded with multitudes, and in great danger from their 
arrows, till at last they found the way to make themselves 
large targets of wood, which they covered with skins of wild 
beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered them 
from the arrows of the savages ; that, notwithstanding these 
they were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of 
them knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, 
which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner; 
that is to say, the Spaniard whom I had relieved, that at 
first they thought had been killed, but when afterwards they 
heard he was taken prisoner, they were under the greatest 
grief imaginable, and would willingly have ventured their 
lives to have rescued him. 

They told me that, when they were so knocked down, the 
rest of their company rescued them, and stood over them, 
fighting till they were come to themselves, all but him who 
they thought had been dead ; and then they made their way 
with their halberds and pieces, standing .close together in a 
line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


382 

down all that came in their way, got the victory over their 
enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was the loss 
of their friend, whom, the other party, finding him alive, 
carried off with some others, as I gave an account in my 
former. 

They described most affectionately, how they were sur- 
prised with joy at the return of their friend and companion 
in misery, who they thought had been devoured by wild 
beasts of the worst kind, viz: by wild men; and yet how 
more and more they were surprised with the account he gave 
them of his errand, and that there was not a Christian in any 
place near, much more one that was able and had humanity 
enough to contribute to their deliverance. 

They described how they were astonished at the sight of 
the relief I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of 
bread, things they had not seen since their coming to that 
miserable place ; how often they crossed it, and blessed it, 
as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it 
was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other things I 
had sent for their supply. And after all, they would have 
told me something of the joy they were in at the sight of a 
boat and pilots to carry them away to the person and place 
from whence all these new comforts came; but they told me 
it was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive 
joy, naturally driving them to unbecoming extravagancies, 
they had no way to describe them, but by telling me that 
they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to 
their passion, suitable to the sense that was upon them; 
that in some it worked one way, and in some another ; and 
that some of them, through a surprise of joy, would burst 
out into tears ; others be stark mad, and others immediately 
faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and called to 
my mind Friday’s ecstasy when he met his father, and the 
poor people’s ecstasy when I took them up at sea, after 
their ship was on fire ; the mate of the ship’s joy, when he 
found himself delivered in the place where he expected to 
perish; and my own joy, when, after twenty-eight years 
captivity, I found a good ship ready to carry me to 
my own country. All these things made me more sensi- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 383 

ble of the relation of those poor men, and more affected 
with it. 

Having thus given a view of the state of things, as I 
found them, I must relate the heads of what I did for these 
people, and the condition in which I left them. It was their 
opinion and mine too, that they would be troubled no more 
with the savages ; or that if they were, they would be able 
to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before ; so 
they had no concern about that. Then I entered into a 
serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom I call governor, 
about their stay in the island ; for, as I was not come to 
carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off 
some, and leave others, who perhaps would be unwilling to 
stay, if their strength was diminished. 

On the other hand, I told them I came to establish them 
there, not to remove them ; and then I let them know that I 
had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I 
had been at a great charge to supply them with all things 
necessary, as well for their convenience as their defense; 
and that I had such and such particular persons with me, as 
well to increase and recruit their number, as by the partic- 
ular necessary employments which they were bred to, being 
artificers, to assist them in those things in which, at present, 
they were to seek. 

They were all together when I talked thus to them ; and 
before I delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked 
them, one by one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the 
first animosities that had been among them, and would shake 
hands with one another, and engage in a strict friendship 
and union of interest, that so there might be no more mis- 
understandings or jealousies. 

William Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good 
humor, said they had met with afflictions enough to make 
them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends ; 
that, for his part, he would live and die with them ; and was 
so far from designing anything against the Spaniards, that 
he owned that they had done nothing to him but what his 
own bad humors made necessary, and what he would have 
done, and perhaps much worse, in their case ; and that he 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 8 4 

would ask them pardon, if I desired it, for the foolish and 
brutish things he had done to them ; and was very willing 
and desirous of living on terms of entire friendship and 
union with them, and would do anything that lay in his 
power to convince them of it ; and, as for going to England, 
he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years. 

The Spaniards said they had, indeed, disarmed and ex- 
cluded William Atkins and his two countrymen for their ill 
conduct, as they had let me know, and they appealed to me 
for the necessity they were under to do so ; but that William 
Atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great light 
they had with the savages, and on several occasions since, 
and had shown himself so faithful to and concerned for the 
general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that 
was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with 
arms, and to be supplied with necessaries as any of them ; 
and that they had testified their satisfaction in him by com- 
mitting the command to him, next to the governor himself. 
And as they had an entire confidence in him and all his 
countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that 
confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit 
to be valued and trusted ; and they most heartily embraced 
the occasion of giving me this assurance that they would 
never have any interest separate from one another. 

Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we 
appointed the next day to dine all together ; and, indeed, we 
made a splendid feast. I caused the ship’s cook and his 
mate to come on shore and dress our dinner ; and the old 
cook’s mate we had on shore assisted. We brought on 
shore six pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork out of 
the ship’s provisions, with our punch-bowls, and material to 
fill it; and, in particular, gave them ten bottles of French 
claret and ten bottles of English beer, — things that neither 
the Spaniards nor the Englishmen had tasted for many 
years, and which, it may be supposed, they were exceedingly 
glad of. 

The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which 
the cooks roasted ; and three of them were sent, covered up 
close, on board the ship, to the seamen, that they might 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 385 

feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with their salt 
meat from on board. 

After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, 
I brought out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might 
be no dispute about dividing, I showed them that there was 
sufficient for them all; and desired that they might all take 
an equal quantity of the goods that were for wearing ; that 
is to say, equal when made up ; as first, I distributed linen 
sufficient to make every one of them four shirts ; and at the 
Spaniard’s request afterwards, made them up six. These 
were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what, as 
I may say, they had long since forgot the use of, or what it 
was to wear them. 

I allotted the thin, English stuffs, which I mentioned 
before, to make every one a light coat, like a frock, which I 
judged fittest for the heat of the season, cool and loose ; and 
ordered, that whenever they decayed, they should make 
more, as they thought fit. The like for pumps, shoes, 
stockings, and hats, etc. 

I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat 
upon the countenances of all these poor men, when they saw 
the care I had taken of them, and how well I had furnished 
them. They told me I was a father to them, and that, 
having such a correspondent as I was, in so remote a part 
of the world, it would make them forget that they were left 
in a desolate place ; and they all voluntarily engaged to me 
not to leave the place without my consent. 

Then I presented to them the people I had brought with 
me, particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpen- 
ters, all of them most necessary people; but above all, my 
general artificer, than whom they could not name anything 
that was more useful to them. And the tailor, to show his 
concern for them, went to work immediately ; and, with my 
leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did; 
and which was still more, he taught the women, not only 
how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but made them 
assist to make the shirts for their husbands, and for all 
the rest. 

As to the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful 
13 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


386 

they were, for they took in pieces all my clumsy, unhandy 
things, and made them clever, convenient tables, stools, bed- 
steads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and everything they 
wanted of that kind. 

But to let them see how nature made artificers at first, I ' 
carried the carpenters to see Will Atkins’s basket-house, as 
I called it, and they both owned they never saw an instance 
of such natural ingenuity before ; nor anything so regular, 
and so handily built, at least of its kind. And one of them, 
when he saw it, after musing a good while, turning about to 
me, “ I am sure,” says he, “ that man has no need of us, you 
need do nothing but give him tools.” 

Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave 
every man a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had 
no harrows or ploughs ; and to every separate place, a pick- 
axe, crow, a broad axe, and a saw ; always appointing, that 
as often as any were broken, or worn out, they should be 
supplied, without grudging, out of the general stores that I 
left behind. 

Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, 
and all sorts of tools and ironwork, they had without tale, as 
required, for no man would care to take more than they 
wanted, and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil 
them, on any account whatever; and for the use of the 
smith, I left two ton of unwrought iron for a supply. 

My magazine of powder and arms, which I brought them, 
was such, even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice 
at them; for now they could march, as I used to do, with a 
musket upon each shoulder, if there was occasion, and were 
able to fight a thousand savages, if they had but some little 
advantages of situation, which also, they could not miss of, 
if they had occasion. 

I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother 
was starved to death, and the maid also. She was a sober, 
well educated, religious young woman, and behaved so inof- 
fensively that every one gave her a good word. She had, 
indeed, an unhappy life with us, but she bore it with patience. 
After awhile, seeing things so well ordered, and in so fine a 
way of thriving upon my island, and considering that they 



DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD. R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE DISTRIBUTING TOOLS OF HUSBANDRY AMONG THc 

fNHABITANTS. 


Page 386, 

































































* ft 












































































• ’ ’-mi 








































. > 


. 









• * 






•* 




..•V 


r 

i 




. .. • 



























ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


387 

had neither business or acquaintance in the East Indies, or 
reason for taking so long a voyage, — I say, considering all 
this, both of them came to me, and desired I would give 
them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among 
my family, as they called it. 

I agreed to it readily, and they had a little plot of ground 
allotted to them, where they had three tents or houses set 
up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisaded like Atkins’s, 
adjoining to his plantation. Their tents were contrived so 
that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in, and a 
middle tent like a great store-house to lay all their goods in, 
and to eat and drink in. And now the other two English- 
men removed their habitation to the same place; and so the 
island was divided into three colonies, and no more, viz: 
the Spaniards with old Friday and the first servants, at my 
old habitation under the hill; which was, in a word, the 
capital city, and where they had so enlarged and extended 
their works, as well under, as on the outside of the hill, that 
they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. 
Never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, 
I believe, in any part of the world ; for I verily believe a 
thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and if 
they had not known there was such a thing, and looked on 
purpose for it, they would not have found it, for the trees 
stood so thick and so close, and grew so fast matted into 
one another, that nothing but cutting them down first, could 
discover the place, except only the two narrow entrances, 
where they went in and out, could be found, which was not 
very easy. One of them was just down at the water-edge of 
the creek, and it was afterwards above two hundred yards 
to the place ; and the other was up the ladder at twice, as I 
have already formerly described it; and they had a large 
wood thick planted, also, on the top of the hill, which con- 
tained above an acre, which grew apace, and covered the 
place from all discovery there, with only one narrow place 
between two trees, not easy to be discovered, to enter on 
that side. 

The other colony was that of Will Atkins’s, where there 
were four families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


388 

there, with their wives and children; three savages that 
were slaves ; the widow and children of the Englishman 
that was killed, the young man and the maid; and by the 
way, we made a wife of her also, before we went away. 
There were also the two carpenters and the tailor whom I 
brought with me for them ; also the smith, who was a very 
necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith, to take 
care of their arms; and my other man, whom I called Jack 
of-all-trades, who was in himself as good almost as twenty 
men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very 
merry fellow; and before I went away we married him to the 
honest maid that came with the youth in the ship I men- 
tioned before. 

And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to 
say something of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought 
with me out of the ship’s crew whom I took up at sea. It 
is true, this man was a Roman, and perhaps it may give 
offense to some hereafter, if I leave anything extraordinary 
upon record of a man, whom, before I begin, I must (to set 
him out in just colors), represent in terms very much to his 
disadvantage in the account of Protestants; as first, that he 
was a papist; secondly, a popish priest; and thirdly, a 
French popish priest. 

But justice demands of me to give him a due character; 
and I must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, and most 
religious person; exact in his life, extensive in his charity, 
and exemplary in almost everything he did. What then can 
anyone say against my being sensible of the value of such a 
man, notwithstanding his profession ? Though it may be my 
opinion, perhaps, as well as the opinion of others who shall 
read this, that he was mistaken. 

The first hour that I began to converse with him, after he 
had agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason 
to delight exceedingly in his conversation; and he first be- 
gan with me about religion in the most obliging manner 
imaginable. 

“ Sir,” said he, “ you have not only, under God (and at 
that he crossed his breast), saved my life, but you have ad- 
mitted me to go this voyage in your ship, and by your oblig- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


389 

ing civility have taken me into your family, giving me an 
opportunity of free conversation. Now sir,” said he, “you 
see by my habit what my profession is, and I guess by your 
nation what yours is ; I may think it is my duty, and doubt- 
less it is so, to use my utmost endeavors, on all occasions, 
to bring all the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth, 
and to embrace the Catholic doctrine; but as I am here 
under your permission, and in your family, I am bound, in 
justice to your kindness, as well as in decency and good 
manners, to be under your government; and therefore I 
shall not, without your leave, enter into any debates on the 
point of' religion, in which we may not agree, farther than 
you shall give me leave.” 

I told him his carriage was so modest that I could not 
but acknowledge it; that it was true, we were such people 
as they called heretics ; but that he was not the first Catho- 
lic that I had conversed with without falling into any incon- 
veniencies, or carrying the questions to any height in de- 
bate : that he should not find himself the worse used for 
being of a different opinion from us, and if we did not con- 
verse without any dislike on either side upon that score, it 
should be his fault, not ours. 

He replied, that he thought all our conversation might be 
easily separated from disputes ; that it was not his business 
to cap principles with every man he discoursed with; and 
that he rather desired me to converse with him as a gentle- 
man, than as a religieuse ; that if I would give him leave at 
any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he would 
readily comply with it ; and that then, he did not doubt but 
I would allow him also to defend his own opinions, as well 
as he could ; but that without my leave he would not break 
in upon me with any such thing. 

He told me farther, that he would not cease to do all that 
became him in his office, as a priest, as well as a private 
Christian, to procure the good of the ship, and the safety of 
all that was in her; and though perhaps we would not join 
with him, and he could not pray with us, he hoped he might 
pray for us, which he would do upon all occasions. In this 
manner we conversed ; and as he was of a most obliging, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


39 ° 

gentleman-like behaviour, so he was, if I may be allowed to 
say so, a man of good sense, and as I believe, of great 
learning. 

He gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of 
the many extraordinary events of it ; of many adventures 
which had befallen him in the few years that he had been abroad 
in the world ; and particularly, this was very remarkable, viz : 
that in the voyage he was now engaged, he had had the mis- 
fortune to be five times shipped and unshipped, and never 
to go to the place whither any of the ships he was in w r ere 
at first designed. That his first intent was to have gone to 
Martinico, and that he went on board a ship bound thither, 
at St. Malo; but, being forced into Lisbon by bad weather, 
the ship received some damage by running aground in the 
mouth of the river Tagus, and was obliged to unload her 
cargo there; that finding a Portuguese ship there bound to 
the Madeiras, and ready to sail, and supposing he should 
easily meet with a vessel there bound to Martinico, he went 
on board, in order to sail to the Madeiras. But the master 
of the Portuguese ship, being but an indifferent mariner, had 
been out in his reckoning, and they drove to Fayal; where, 
however, he happened to find a very good market for his 
cargo, which was corn, and therefore resolved not to go to 
the Madeiras, but to load salt at the Isle of May, and go 
aw r ayto Newfoundland. He had no remedy in this exigence 
but to go with the ship, and had a pretty good voyage as far 
as the banks, so they call the place where they catch the 
fish, where, meeting with a French ship, bound from PTance 
to Quebec in the river of Canada, and from thence to Mar- 
tinico, to carry provisions, he thought he should have an op- 
portunity to complete his first design ; but, when he came to 
Quebec, the master of the ship died, and the ship proceeded 
no further; so the next voyage he shipped himself for France, 
in the ship that was burnt, when we took them up at sea, and 
then shipped with us for the East Indies, as I have already 
said. Thus he had been disappointed in five voyages, all, 
as I may call it, in one voyage, besides what I shall have 
occasion to mention farther of the same person. 

But I shall not make disgressions into other men’s stories, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


39 1 


which have no relation to my own. I return to what con- 
cerns our affair in the island. He came to me one morning, 
for he lodged among us all the while we were upon the 
island; and it happened to be just when I was going to visit 
the Englishmen’s colony at the farthest part of the island. I 
say, he came to me, and told me, with a very grave counte- 
nance, that he had for two or three days desired an oppor- 
tunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped would 
not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might in some 
measure correspond with my general design, which was the 
prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps might put it, at 
least more than he yet thought it was, in the way of God’s 
blessing. 

I looked a little surprised at the last part of his discourse, 
and turning a little short, “How, sir,” said I, “ can it be said 
that we are not in the way of God’s blessing, after such 
visible assistances and wonderful deliverances as we have 
seen here, and of which I have given you a large account?” 

“ If you had pleased, sir,” said he, with a world of modesty, 
and yet with great readiness, “ to have heard me, you would 
have found no room to have been displeased, much less to 
think so hard of me, that I should suggest that you have 
not had wonderful assistances and deliverances ; and I hope, 
on your behalf, that you are in the way of God’s blessing, 
and your design is exceeding good, and will prosper. But, 
sir, though it were more so, than is even possible to you, 
yet there may be some among you that are not equally right 
in their actions. And you know, that in the story of the 
children of Israel, one Achan in the camp removed God’s 
blessing from them, and turned his hand so against them, 
that six and thirty of them, though not concerned in the 
crime, were the object of divine vengeance, and bore the 
weight of that punishment.” 

I was sensibly touched with his discourse, and told him 
his inference was so just, and the whole design seemed so 
sincere, and was really so religious in its own nature, that I 
was very sorry I had interrupted him, and begged him to go 
on ; and in the meantime, because it seemed that what we 
had both to say might take up some time, I told him I was 


39 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


going to the Englishmen’s plantations, and asked him to go 
with me, and we might discourse of it by the way. He told 
me, he would more willingly wait on me thither, because 
there partly the thing was acted, which he desired to speak 
to me about. So we walked on ; and I pressed him to be 
free and plain with me in what he had to say. 

“Why then, sir,” said he, “ be pleased to give me leave to 
lay down a few propositions as the foundation of what I 
have to say, that we may not differ in the general principles, 
though we may be of some differing opinions in the practice 
of particulars. First, sir, though we differ in some of the 
doctrinal articles of religion, — and it is very unhappy that it 
is so, especially in the case before us, as I shall show after- 
wards, — yet there are some general principles in which we 
both agree, viz : first, that there is a God ; and that this God 
having given us some stated general rules for our service 
and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to 
offend him, either by neglecting to do what he has com- 
manded, or by doing what he has expressly forbidden. And 
let our different religions be what they will, this general 
principle is readily owned by us all, that the blessing of God 
does not ordinarily follow a presumptuous sinning against 
his command ; and every good Christian will be affectionately 
concerned to prevent any that are under his care, living in a 
total neglect of God and his commands. It is not your men 
being Protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such, 
that discharges me from being concerned for their souls, 
and from endeavoring, if it lies before me, that they should 
live in as little distance from and enmity with their Maker 
as possible, especially if you give me leave to meddle so far 
in your circuit.” 

I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him I 
granted all he had said, and thanked him that he would so 
far concern himself for us ; and begged he would explain 
the particulars of what he had observed, that, like Joshua, 
to take his own parable, I might put away the accursed thing 
from us. 

“Why, then, sir,” said he, “I will take the liberty you 
give me ; and^ there are three things which, if I am right, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


393 


must stand in the way of God’s blessing upon your endeav- 
ors here, and which I should rejoice, for your sake and their 
own, to see removed. And, sir,” said he, “ I promise my- 
self that you will fully agree with me in them all, as soon as 
I name them, especially because I shall convince you that 
every one of them may, with great ease, and very much to 
your satisfaction, be remedied.” 

He gave me no leave to put in any more civilities, but 
went on. “First, sir,” said he, “you have here four Eng- 
lishmen, who have fetched women from among the sav- 
ages, and have taken them as their wives, and have had 
many children by them all, and yet are not married to them 
after any stated legal manner, as the laws of God and man 
require ; and, therefore, are yet, in the sense of both, no less 
than adulterers, and living in adultery. To this, sir,” said 
he, “ I know you will object that there was no clergyman or 
priest of any kind, or of any profession, to perform the cere- 
mony, nor any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a con- 
tract of marriage and have it signed between them. And I 
know, also, sir, what the Spaniard governor has told you, — 
I mean, of the agreement that he obliged them to make when 
they took these women, viz : that they should choose them 
out by consent and keep separately to them ; which, by the 
way, is nothing of a marriage, — no agreement with the 
women as wives, but only an agreement among themselves, 
to keep them from quarrelling. 

“ But, sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony ” (so 
he called it, being a Roman), “consists not only in the mu- 
tual consent of the parties to take one another as man and 
wife, but in the formal and legal obligation that there is in 
the contract to compel the man and woman, at all times, to 
own and acknowledge each other, obliging the men to ab- 
stain from all other women, to engage in no other contract 
while these subsist ; and, on all occasions, as ability allows, 
to provide honestly for them and their children, and to 
oblige the women to the same or like conditions, mutatis 
mutandis , on their side. 

“Now, sir,” said he, “these men may, when they please, 
or when occasion presents, abandon these women, disown 


394 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


their children, leave them to perish, and take other women 
and marry them whilst these are living.” And here he 
added, with some warmth, “ How, sir, is God honored in 
this unlawful liberty? And how shall a blessing succeed 
your endeavors in this place, — however good in themselves, 
and however sincere in your design, while these men, who, 
at present, are your subjects, under your absolute govern- 
ment and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open 
adultery ? ” 

I confess I was struck at the thing itself, but much more 
with the convincing arguments he supported it with. For it 
was certainly true, that though they had no clergyman upon 
the spot, yet a formal contract on both sides, made before 
witnesses, and confirmed by any token which they had all 
agreed to be bound by, though it had been but breaking a 
stick between them, engaging the men to own these women 
for their wives, upon all occasions, and never to abandon 
them or their children, and the women to the same with their 
husbands, had been an effectual lawful marriage in the sight 
of God ; and it was a great neglect that it was not done. 

But I thought to have gotten off with my young priest by 
telling him that all that part was done when I was not here, 
and they had lived so many years with them now, that if it 
was an adultery, it was past remedy ; they could do nothing 
in it now. 

“Sir,” said he, “asking your pardon for such freedom, 
you are right in this, that, it being done in your absence, you 
could not be charged with that part of the crime. But, I 
beseech you, flatter not yourself that you are not, therefore, 
under an obligation to do your utmost now to put an end 
to it. How can you think but that, let the time past lie 
on whom it will, all the guilt, for the future, will lie en- 
tirely upon you? Because it is certainly in your power 
now to put an end to it ; and in nobody’s power but 
yours.” 

I was so dull still that I did not take him right ; but I 
imagined that, by putting an end to it, he meant that I should 
part them, and not suffer them to live together any longer. 
And I said to him I could not do this by any means, for that 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


395 

it would put the whole island into confusion. He seemed 
surprised that I should so far mistake him. “ No, sir,” said 
he, “ I do not mean that you should now separate them, but 
legally and effectually marry them now; and as, sir, my way 
of marrying them may not be so easy to reconcile them to, 
though it will be as effectual, even by your own laws, so your 
way may be as well before God, and as valid among men. 
I mean, by a written contract, signed by both man and 
woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws 
of Europe would decree to be valid.” 

I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sin- 
cerity of zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his dis- 
course as to his own party or church, and such true warmth 
for the preserving people that he had no knowledge of, or 
relation to. I say, for preserving them from transgressing 
the laws of God, the like of which I had, indeed, not met 
with anywhere. But recollecting what he had said of marry- 
ing them by a written contract, which I knew would stand, 
too, I returned it back upon him, and told him I granted all 
that he had said to be just, and, on his part, very kind; that 
I would discourse with the men upon the point now, when 
I came to them; and I knew no reason why they should 
scruple to let him marry them all, which I knew well enough 
would be granted to be as authentic and valid in England as 
if they were married by one of our own clergymen. What 
was afterwards done in this matter, I shall speak of by 
itself. 

I then pressed him to tell me what was the second com- 
plaint which he had to make, acknowledging that I was very 
much his debtor for the first, and thanked him heartily for it. 
He told me he would use the same freedom and plainness in 
the second, and hoped I would take it as well, — and this 
was, that, notwithstanding these English subjects of mine, 
as he called them, had lived with those women for almost 
seven years, had taught them to speak English, and even to 
read it, and that they were, as he perceived, women of tol- 
erable understanding, and capable of instruction, yet they 
had not, to this hour, taught them anything of the Christian 
religion, — no, not so much as to know that there was a God 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


3 9 6 

or a worship, or in what manner God was to be served, or 
that their own idolatry, and worshipping they knew not 
whom, was false and absurd. 

This, he said, was an unaccountable neglect, and what 
God would certainly call them to account for, and perhaps 
at last take the work out of their hands. He spoke this 
very affectionately and warmly. “ I am persuaded,” said 
he, “had those men lived in the savage country, whence 
their wives came, the savages would have taken more pains 
to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship the 
devil, than any of these men, so far as he could see, had 
taken with them to teach them the knowledge of the true 
God. Now, sir,” said he, “though I do not acknowledge 
your religion, or you mine, yet we should be glad to see the 
devil’s servants, and the subjects of his kingdom, taught to 
know the general principles of the Christian religion ; that 
they might, at least, hear of God, and of a Redeemer, and of 
the resurrection, and of a future state ; things which we all 
believe. They had at least been so much nearer coming 
into the bosom of the true Church, than they are now in the 
public profession of idolatry and devil-worship.” 

I could hold no longer. I took him in my arms, and 
embraced him with an excess of passion. “ How far,” said 
I to him, “have I been from understanding the most essen- 
tial part of a Christian, viz: to love the interest of the Chris- 
tian Church, and the good of other men’s souls. I scarce 
have known what belongs to being a Christian.” “O, sir, 
do not say so,” replied he, “this thing is not your fault.” 
“No,” said I, “but why did I never lay it to heart as well 
as you?” “ It is not too late, yet,” said he, “be not too for- 
ward to condemn yourself.” “ But what can be done now ? ” 
said I, “you see I am going away.” “Will you give me 
leave,” said he, “to talk with these poor men about it?” 
“ Yes, with all my heart,” said I, “and I will oblige them to 
give heed to what you say, too.” “ As to that,” said he, 
“we must leave them to the mercy of Christ; but it is our 
business to assist them, encourage them, and instruct them; 
and if you will give me leave, and God his blessing, I do 
not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought home 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


397 

into the great circle of Christianity, into the particular faith 
that we all embrace, and that even while you stay here.” 
“ Upon this,” I said, “ I shall not only give you leave, but 
give you a thousand thanks for it.” What followed on this 
account, I shall mention also again in its place. 

I now pressed him for the third article in which we were 
to blame. “Why, really,” said he, “it is of the same nature, 
and I will proceed, asking your leave, with the same plain- 
ness as before. It is about your poor savages, who are, as 
I may say, your conquered subjects. It is a maxim, sir, 
that is, or ought to be received among all Christians of what 
church or pretended church soever, viz : ‘ the Christian knowl- 
edge ought to be propagated by all possible means, and on all 
possible occasions.’ It is on this principle that our Church 
sends missionaries into Persia, India, and China, and that 
our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the 
most hazardous voyages and the most dangerous residence 
among murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowl- 
edge of the true God, and to bring them over to embrace 
the Christian faith. Now, sir, you have such an opportunity 
here, to have six or seven-and- thirty poor savages brought 
over from idolatry to the knowledge of God, their Maker 
and Redeemer, that I wonder how you can pass such an 
occasion of doing good, which is really worth the expense 
of a man’s whole life.” 

I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to 
say. I had here a spirit of true Christian zeal for God and 
religion before me, let his particular principles be of what 
kind soever. As for me, I had not so much as entertained 
a thought of this in my heart before, and I believe I should 
not have thought of it; for I looked upon these savages as 
slaves, and people, whom, had we any work for them to do, 
we would have used as such, or would have been glad to 
have transported them to any other part of the world ; for 
our business was to get rid of them, and we would all have 
been satisfied if they had been sent to any country, so they 
had never seen their own. But to the case. I say I was 
confounded at his discourse, and knew not what answer to 
make him. He looked earnestly at me, seeing me in some 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


39 s 

disorder. “Sir,” said he, “I shall be very sorry if what I 
have said gives you any offense.” “No, no,” said I, “ I am 
offended with nobody but myself ; but I am perfectly con- 
founded, not only to think that I should never take any 
notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice I am 
able to take of it now. You know, sir,” said I, “what cir- 
cumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies, in a 
ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an 
unsufferable piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the 
men lying all this while at victuals and wages upon the 
owners’ account. It is true, I agreed to be allowed twelve 
days here, and if I stay more, I must pay sterling per 
diem demurrage, nor can I stay upon demurrage above 
eight days more, and I have been here thirteen days already, 
so that I am perfectly unable to engage in this work unless 
I would suffer myself to be left behind here again, in which 
case, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of her 
voyage, I should be in just the same condition that I was 
left in here at first, and from which I have been so won- 
derfully delivered.” 

He owned the case was very hard upon me, as to my 
voyage, but laid it home upon my conscience, whether the 
blessing of saving seven-and-thirty souls was not worth my 
venturing all I had in the world for. I was not so sensible 
of that as he was. I returned upon him thus : “Why sir, it 
is a valuable thing indeed, to be an instrument in God’s 
hand to convert seven-and-thirty heathens to the knowledge 
of Christ, but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given 
over to the work, so that it seems so naturally to fall 
into the way of your profession, how is it that you do 
not rather offer yourself to undertake it, than press me 
to it?” 

Upon this he faced about, just before me, as we walked 
along, and putting me to a full stop, made me a very low 
bow. “ I most heartily thank God and you, sir,” said he, 
“for giving me so evident a call to so blessed a work ; and, 
if you think yourself discharged from it, and desire me to 
undertake it, I will most readily do it, and think it a happy 
reward for all the hazards and difficulties of such a broken, 



ISia 





A;]? 1 ** 


es&X 





s£5: 



DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


THE 


PLANTATION OF THE 


THREE ENGLISHMEN. 


Page 398 





ROBINSON CRUSOE. 399 

disappointed voyage as I have met with, that I may be 
dropped at last into so glorious a work.” 

I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke 
this to me. His eyes sparkled like fire, his face glowed, and 
his color came and went, as if he had been falling into fits. 
In a word, he was fired with the joy of being embarked in 
such a work. I paused a considerable while before I could 
tell what to say to him, for I was really surprised to find a 
man of such sincerity and zeal, and carried out in his zeal 
beyond the ordinary rate of men, not of his profession only, 
but even of any profession whatsoever. But, after I had 
considered it awhile, I asked him seriously if he was in 
earnest, and that he would venture, on the single condition 
of any attempt on those poor people, to be locked up in an 
unplanted island for, perhaps, his life ; and at last might 
not know whether he should be able to do them any good, 
or not. 

He turned short upon me, and asked me what I called a 
venture. “Pray, sir,” said he, “what do you think I con- 
sented to go in your ship to the East Indies for ? ” “ Nay,” 

said I, “that I know not, unless it was to preach to the 
Indians.” “ Doubtless it was,” said he ; “ and do you think 
if I can convert these seven-and-thirty men to the faith of 
Christ it is not worth my time, though I should never be 
fetched off the island again? Nay, is it not infinitely of 
more worth to save so many souls, than my life is, or the 
life of twenty more of the same profession? Yes sir,” said 
he, “ I would give Christ and the blessed Virgin thanks all 
my days, if I could be made the least happy instrument of 
saving the souls of these poor men, though I was never to set 
my foot off this island, or see my native country any more. 
But since you will honor me,” said he, “with putting me 
into this work, for which I will pray for you all the days of 
my life, I have one humble petition to you,” said he, 
“besides.” “What is that,” said I. “Why” said he, “it 
is, that you will leave your man Friday with me, to be my 
interpreter to them, and to assist me ; for without some 
help, I cannot speak to them, or they to me.” 

I was sensibly troubled at his requesting Friday, because 


400 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I could not think of parting with him, and that for many 
reasons. He had been the companion of my travels ; he was 
not only faithful to me, but sincerely affectionate to the last 
degree, and I had resolved to do something considerable for 
him, if he outlived me, as it was probable he would. Then 
I knew, that as I had bred Friday up to be a Protestant, it 
would quite confound him to bring him to embrace another 
profession ; and he would never, while his eyes were open, 
believe that his old master was a heretic and would be 
damned ; and this might, in the end, ruin the poor fellow’s 
principles, and so turn him to his first idolatry. 

However, a sudden thought relieved me in this straight, 
and it was this : I told him I could not say that I was willing 
to part with Friday on any account whatever, though a work 
that, to him, was of more value than his life, ought to be to 
me of much less value than the keeping or parting with a 
servant. But, on the other hand, I was persuaded that Fri- 
day would, by no means, consent to part with me, and I 
could not force him to it without his consent, without mani- 
fest injustice, because I had promised and engaged him to 
me, that he would never leave me, unless I put him away. 

He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no 
rational access to these poor people, seeing he did not un- 
derstand one word of their language, nor they one word of 
his. To remove this difficulty, I told him Friday’s father 
had learned Spanish, which I found he also understood, and 
he should serve him for an interpreter. So he was much 
better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he 
would stay to endeavor to convert them ; but Providence 
gave another and very happy turn to all this. 

I come back now to the first part of his objections. When 
we came to the Englishmen, I sent for them all together, 
and after some account given them of what I had done for 
them, viz : what necessary things I had provided for them, 
and how they were distributed, — which they were very sen- 
sible of, and very thankful for, — I began to talk to them of 
the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full account of 
the notice the clergyman had already taken of it, and argu- 
ing how unchristian and irreligious a life it was. I first 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


401 


asked them if they were married men or bachelors. They 
soon explained their condition to me, and showed me that 
two of them were widowers, and the other three were single 
men, or bachelors. I asked them with what consciences 
they could take these women and lie with them, as they had 
done, call them their wives, and have so many children by 
them, and not be married lawfully to them. 

They all gave me the answer that I expected, viz : that 
there was nobody to marry them ; that they agreed before 
the governor to keep them as their wives, and to keep them 
and own them as their wives ; and they thought, as things 
stood with them, they were as legally married as if they had 
been married by a parson, and with all the formalities in the 
world. 

I told them that no doubt they were married in the sight 
of God, and were bound in conscience to keep them as their 
wives ; but that the laws of men being otherwise, they might 
pretend they were not married, and so desert the poor 
women and children hereafter; and that their wives being 
poor desolate women, friendless and moneyless, would have 
no way to help themselves. I therefore told them that, 
unless I was assured of their honest intent, I could do noth- 
ing for them, but would take care that what I did should be 
for the women and their children, without them ; and that 
unless they would give some assurances that they would 
marry the women, I could not think it was convenient they 
should continue together as man and wife, for that it was 
both scandalous to men and offensive to God, who they 
could not think would bless them if they went on thus. 

All this went on as I expected, and they told me, especially 
Will Atkins, who seemed now to speak for the rest, that 
they loved their wives as well as if they had been born in 
their own native country, and would not leave them upon 
any account whatever; and they did verily believe their 
wives were as virtuous and as modest, and did, to the utmost 
of their skill, as much for them and for their children as 
any women could possibly do, and they would not part with 
them on any account. And Will Atkins, for his own par- 
ticular added, if any man would take him away, and offer to 


402 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


carry him home to England, and make him captain of the 
best man-of-war in the navy, he would not go with him, if he 
might not carry his wife and children with him ; and if there 
was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her 
now with all his heart. 

This was just as I would have it; the Priest was not with 
me at that moment, but was not far off. So to try him 
farther, I told him I had a clergyman with me, and if he 
was sincere, I would have him married the next morning, 
and bid him consider of it, and talk with the rest. He said, 
as for himself, he need not consider of it at all, for he was 
very ready to do it, and was glad I had a minister with me, 
and he believed they would be all willing also. I then told 
him that my friend the minister was a Frenchman, and 
could not speak English, but that I would act the clerk 
between them. He never so much as asked me whether he 
was Papist or Protestant, which was indeed what I was 
afraid of; but, I say, they never enquired about it. So we 
parted ; I went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went 
in to talk with his companions. I desired the French 
gentleman not to say anything to them till the business was 
thorough ripe, and I told him what answer the men had 
given me. 

Before I went from their quarter, they all came to me, and 
told me they had been considering what I had said ; that 
they were very glad to hear I had a clergyman in my 
company, and they were very willing to give me the satis- 
faction I desired, and to be formally married as soon as I 
pleased ; for they were far from desiring to part with their 
wives, and that they meant nothing but what was very 
honest when they chose them. So I appointed them to 
meet me the next morning, and that in the meantime they 
should let their wives know the meaning of the marriage- 
law ; and that it was not only to prevent any scandal, but 
also to oblige them, that they should not forsake them, 
whatever might happen. 

The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of 
the thing, and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, 
they had reason to be ; so they failed not to attend all 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


403 


together at my apartment the next morning, where I brought 
out my clergyman ; and though he had noton a minister’s 
gown, after the manner of England, or the habit of a priest, 
after the manner of France, yet, having a black vest some- 
thing like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look 
very unlike a minister ; and as for his language, I was his 
interpreter. 

But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the 
scruples he made of marrying the women, because they 
were not baptized and professed Christians, gave them an 
exceeding reverence for his person; and there was no need 
after that to enquire whether he was a clergyman or no. 

Indeed, I was afraid his scruples would have been carried 
so far, as that he would not have married them at all ; nay, 
notwithstanding all I was able to say to him, he resisted me, 
though modestly, yet very steadily, and at last refused 
absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked with the 
men and the women too; and though at first I was a little 
backward to it, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will, 
perceiving the sincerity of his design. 

When he came to them he let them know that I had ac- 
quainted him with their circumstances, and with the present 
design. That he was very willing to perform that part of 
his function, and marry them as I had desired ; but that 
before he could do it, he must take the liberty to talk with 
them. He told them that in the sight of all indifferent men, 
and in the sense of the laws of society, they had lived all 
this while in an open adultery; and that it was true, that 
nothing but the consenting to marry, or effectually separat- 
ing them from one another now, could put an end to it; but 
there was a difficulty in it too, with respect to the laws of 
Christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, 
viz: that of marrying one that is a professed Christian to 
a savage, an idolater, and a heathen, one that is not baptized; 
and yet that he did not see that there was time left for it to 
endeavor to persuade the women to be baptized, or to pro- 
fess the name of Christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard 
nothing of, and without which they could not be baptized. 

He told them he doubted they were but indifferent Chris- 


404 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


tians themselves ; that they had but little knowledge of God, 
or of his ways ; and therefore he could not expect that they 
had said much to their wives on that head yet ; but that un- 
less they would promise him to use their endeavor with their 
wives to persuade them to become Christians, and would, as 
well as they could, instruct them in the knowledge and belief 
of God that made them, and to worship Jesus Christ that 
redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he would have 
no hand in joining Christians with savages; nor was it con- 
sistent with the principles of the Christian religion, and was 
indeed expressly forbidden in God’s law. 

They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it 
very 7 faithfully to them, from his mouth, as near his own 
words as I could, only sometimes adding something of my 
own to convince them how just it was, and how I was of his 
mind ; and I always very faithfully distinguished between 
what I said for myself, and what were the clergyman’s words. 
They told me it was very true, what the gentleman had said, 
that they were but very indifferent Christians themselves, 
and that they never talked to their wives about religion. 
“ Lord, sir ! ” said Will Atkins, “ how should we teach them 
religion ? Why, we know nothing ourselves ; and besides, 
sir,” said he, “should we go to talk to them of God, and 
Jesus Christ, and heaven and hell, ’twould be to make them 
laugh at us, and ask us what we believe ourselves? And if 
we should tell them we believe all the things that we speak 
of to them, such as of good people going to heaven, and 
wicked people to the devil, they would ask us, where we in- 
tend to go ourselves, that believe all this, and are such 
wicked fellows, as we indeed are ? Why, sir, ’tis enough to 
give them a surfeit of religion at first hearing. Folks must 
have some religion themselves, before they pretend to teach 
other people.” “Will Atkins,” said I to him, “though I am 
afraid what you say has too much truth in it, yet can you not 
tell your wife that she’s in the wrong ? That there is a God, 
and a religion better than her own ; that her gods are idols, 
that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great 
Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that he 
has made ; that he rewards the good, and punishes the bad ; 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


405 

and, that we are to be judged by him at last for all we do 
here? You are not so ignorant, but even nature itself will 
teach you that all this is true, and I satisfied you know 
it all to be true, and believe it yourself.” 

“ That’s true, sir,” said Atkins, “but with what face can I 
say anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell me 
immediately it cannot be true ? ” 

“Not true!” said I: “What do you mean by that?” 
“ Why, sir,” said he, “ she will tell me it cannot be true ; 
that this God I shall tell her of can be just, or can punish, 
or reward, since I am not punished, and sent to the devil, 
that have been such a wicked creature as she knows I have 
been, even to her, and to everybody else ; and that I should 
be suffered to live, that have been always acting so contrary 
to what I must tell her is good, and to what I ought to have 
done ? ” 

“ Why, truly, Atkins,” said I, “ I am afraid thou speakest 
too much truth ; ” and with that I let the clergyman know 
what Atkins had said, for he was impatient to know. “ O ! ” 
said the priest, “tell him there is one thing will make him 
the best minister in the world to his wife, and that is repent- 
ance; for none teach repentance like true penitents. He 
wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so much 
the better qualified to instruct his wife. He will then be 
able to tell her that there is not only a God, and that he is 
the just rewarder of good and evil, but that he is a merciful 
being, and with infinite goodness and long-suffering for- 
bears to punish those that offend, waiting to be gracious, 
and willing not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
should return and live; that oftentimes suffers wicked 
men to go on a long time, and even reserves damnation to 
the general day of retribution ; that it is a clear evidence 
of God, and of a future state, that righteous men receive 
not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, until they 
come into another world ; and this will lead him to teach his 
wife the doctrine of the Resurrection, and of the last Judg- 
ment. Let him but repent for himself, he will be an excel- 
lent preacher of repentance for his wife.” 

I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


406 

the while, and who, we could easily perceive, was more than 
ordinarily affected with it. When, being eager, and hardly 
suffering me to make an end, “ I know all this, master,” 
said he, “and a great deal more ; but I han’t the impudence 
to talk thus to my wife, when God and my own conscience 
knows, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence against 
me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of a God, or 
future state, or anything about it ; and to talk of my repent- 
ing, alas ! ” and with that he fetched a deep sigh ; and I 
could see that tears stood in his eyes. “ ’Tis past all that 
with me.” “Past it, Atkins,” said I, “What dost thou 
mean by that? ” “ I know well enough what I mean,” said 

he, “ I mean ’tis too late, and that is too true.” 

I told my clergyman word for word what he said. The 
poor, zealous priest (I must call him so, for, be his opinion 
what it will, he had certainly a most singular affection for the 
good of other men’s souls, and it would be hard to think he 
had not the like for his own), — I say, this zealous, affec- 
tionate man could not refrain from tears also ; but, recovering 
himself, he said to me, “Ask him but one question: Is he 
easy that it is too late, or is he troubled, and wishes it were 
not so?” I put the question fairly to Atkins, and he 
answered with a great deal of passion, “ How could any man 
be easy in a condition that certainly must end in eternal 
destruction?” That he was far from being easy; but that, 
on the contrary, he believed it would one time or other ruin 
him. 

“What do you mean by that? ” said I. “Why,” he said, 
“he believed he should, one time or other, cut his throat to 
put an end to the terror of it.” 

The clergyman shook his head with a great concern in 
his face, when I told him all this; but, turning quick to me 
upon it, said he, “ If that be his case, you may assure him, 
it is not too late, Christ will give him repentance. But 
pray,” said he, “explain this to him, that as no man is saved 
but by Christ and the merits of his passion, procuring 
Divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man to 
receive mercy? Does he think he is able to sin beyond 
the power or reach of Divine mercy ? Pray tell him theie 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


407 

may be a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive, 
and when God may refuse to hear, but that ’tis never too 
late for men to ask mercy; and we that are Christ’s ser- 
vants are commanded to preach mercy at all times, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerely repent; so 
that ’tis never too late to repent.” 

1 told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnest- 
ness, but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the 
rest, for he said to me he would go and have some talk 
with his wife; so he went out awhile, and we talked to the 
rest. I perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as to mat- 
ters of religion, much as I was when I went rambling away 
from my father ; and yet that there were none of them back- 
ward to hear what had been said ; and all of them seriously 
promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and 
do their endeavor to persuade them to turn Christians. 

The clergyman smiled upon me, when I reported what 
answer they gave, but said nothing a good while; but, at 
last, shaking his head “We that are Christ’s servants,” said 
he, “can go no further than to exhort and instruct; and 
when men comply, submit to the reproof, and promise what 
we ask, it is all we can do. We are bound to accept their 
good words. But believe me, sir,” said he, “ whatever you 
may have known of the life of that man you call Will Atkins, 
I believe he is the only sincere convert among them. I take 
that man to be a true penitent; I won’t despair of the rest, 
but that man is apparently struck with the sense of his past 
life, and I doubt not but when he comes to talk religion to 
his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it; for attempt- 
ing to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching 
ourselves. I knew a man who, having nothing but a sum- 
mary notion of religion himself, and being wicked and 
profligate to the last degree in his life, made a thorough 
reformation in himself by laboring to convert a Jew. If 
that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of 
Jesus Christ to his wife, my life for it he talks himself into 
a thorough convert, makes himself a penitent ; and who 
knows what may follow ? ” 

Upon this discourse, however, and their promising as 


4°& ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

above, to endeavor to persuade their wives to embrace 
Christianity, he married the other three couple, but Will 
Atkins and his wife were not yet come in. After this, my 
clergyman, waiting a while, was curious to know where 
Atkins was gone; and, turning to me, said he, “I entreat 
you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here, and 
look; I dare say, we shall find this poor man somewhere or 
other talking seriously to his wife, and teaching her already 
something of religion. ” I began to be of the same mind, so 
we went out together, and I carried him a way which none 
knew but myself, and where the trees were so thick set, as 
that it was not easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and 
far harder to see in than to see out ; when, coming to the 
edge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his tawny savage wife 
sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse. 
I stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and then 
having showed him where they were, we stood and looked 
very steadily at them a good while. 

We observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to 
the sun and to every quarter of the heavens, then down to 
the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, 
to the woods, to the trees. “ Now,” said my clergyman, 
“you see my words are made good, the man preaches to 
her; mark him now, he is telling her that our God has made 
him and her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, 
the trees, etc.” “ I believe he is,” said I. Immediately we 
perceived Will Atkins start up upon his feet, fall down on 
his knees, and lift up both his hands. We supposed he said 
something, but we could not hear him, it was too far for 
that. He did not continue kneeling half a minute, but came 
and sat down again by his wife, and talked to her again. 
We perceived then the woman very attentive, but whether 
she said anything or no we could not tell. While the poor 
fellow was upon his knees, I could see the tears run plenti- 
fully down my clergyman’s cheeks, and I could hardly for- 
bear myself ; but it was a great affliction to us both that we 
were not near enough to hear anything that passed between 
them. 

Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of dis- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


409 

turbing them, so we resolved to see an end of this piece of 
still conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without 
the help of voice. He sat down again, as I have said, close 
by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two or three 
times we could see him embrace her most passionately. 
Another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and 
wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again with a kind of trans- 
port very unusual ; and after several of these things we saw 
him jump up again, and lend his hand to help her up, when 
immediately, leading her by the hand a step or two, they both 
kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes. 

My friend could bear it no longer, but cried out aloud, 
“ St. Paul, St. Paul ! behold he prayeth.” I was afraid 
Atkins would hear him, therefore I entreated him to with- 
hold himself awhile, that we might see an end of the scene, 
which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting, and 
yet the most agreeable that ever I saw in my life. Well, he 
strove with himself, and contained himself for a while, but 
was in such raptures of joy to think that the poor heathen 
woman was become a Christian, that he was not able to con- 
tain himself. He wept several times, then throwing up his 
hands and crossing his breast, said over several things 
ejaculatory, and by way of giving God thanks for so mira- 
culous a testimony of the success of our endeavors. Some 
he spoke softly, and I could not well hear, others audibly, 
some in Latin, some in French; then two or three times 
the tears of joy would interrupt him, that he could not speak 
at all. But I begged that he would compose himself, and 
let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, 
which he did for a time, and the scene was not ended there 
yet ; for after the poor man and his wife were risen again 
from their knees, we observed he stood talking still eagerly 
to her; and we observed by her motion, that she was greatly 
affected with what he said, by her frequent lifting up her 
hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other 
postures, as usually express the greatest seriousness and 
attention. This continued about half a quarter of an hour, 
and then they walked away too ; so that we could see no 
more of them in that situation. 


4io 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I took this interval to talk with my clergyman. And first, 
I told him I was glad to see the particulars we had both 
been witnesses to ; that, though I was hard enough of belief 
in such cases, yet that I began to think it was all very 
sincere here, both in the man and his wife, however ignorant 
they might both be ; and I hoped such a beginning would 
have a yet more happy end. “And who knows,” said I, 
“ but these two may in time, by instruction and example, 
work upon some of the others ? ” “ Some of them ! ” said 

he, turning quick upon me, “aye, upon all of them; depend 
upon it, if those two savages, for he has been but little 
better, as you relate it, should embrace Jesus Christ, they 
will never leave until they work upon all the rest ; for true 
religion is naturally communicative, and he that is once 
made a Christian, will never leave a pagan behind him, if he 
can help it.” I owned it was a most Christian principle to 
think so, and a testimony of a true zeal, as well as a generous 
heart in him. “But my friend,” said I, “will you give me 
leave to start one difficulty here? I cannot tell how to 
object the least thing against that affectionate concern 
which you show for the turning the poor people from their 
paganism to the Christian religion. But how does this 
comfort you, while these people are in your account out of 
the pale of the Catholic church, without which you believe 
there is no salvation ; so that you esteem these but heretics 
and for other reasons as effectually lost as the pagans them- 
selves ?” 

To this he answered with abundance of candor and 
Christian charity thus : “ Sir, I am a Catholic of the Roman 
church, and a priest of the order of St. Benedict, and I 
embrace all the principles of the Roman faith. But yet, if 
you will believe me, and that I do not speak in compliment 
to you, or in respect to my circumstances and your civilities, 
I say, nevertheless, I do not look upon you, who call your- 
selves reformed, without some charity. I dare not say, 
— though I know it is our opinion in general — I say, I dare 
not say that you cannot be saved. I will by no means limit 
the mercy of Christ so far as to think that he cannot receive 
you into the bosom of his church in a manner to us unper- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


411 

ceivable, and which it is impossible for us to know, and I 
hope you have the same charity for us. I pray daily for 
your being all restored to Christ’s church, by whatsoever 
methods he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the 
meantime, sure you will allow it to consist with me, as a 
Roman, to distinguish far between a Protestant and a pagan; 
between one that calls on Jesus Christ, though in a way 
which I do not think is according to the true faith, and a 
savage, a barbarian, that knows no God, no Christ, no Re- 
deemer ; and if you are not within the pale of the Catholic 
church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than 
those that know nothing of God or his church. And I 
rejoice, therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has 
been a profligate, and almost a murderer, kneel down and 
pray to Jesus Christ, as we suppose he did, though not 
fully enlightened; believing that God, from whom every 
such work proceeds, will sensibly touch his heart, and bring 
him to the future knowledge of that truth in his own time; 
and if God shall influence this poor man to convert and 
instruct the poor ignorant savage, his wife, I can never 
believe that he shall be cast away himself. And have I not 
reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the 
knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite 
home into the bosom of the Catholic church, just in the 
time when I may desire it, leaving it to the goodness of 
Christ to perfect his work in his own time, and in his own 
way? Certainly I would rejoice if all the savages in America 
were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to God, though 
they were to be all Protestants at first, rather than they 
should continue pagans and heathens ; firmly believing, that 
he that had bestowed the first light to them, would further 
illuminate them with a beam of his heavenly grace, and bring 
them into the pale of his church when he should see good.” 

I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this truly 
pious Papist, as much as I was oppressed by the power of 
his reasoning; and it presently occurred to my thoughts 
that if such a temper was universal we might be all Catholic 
Christians, whatever church or particular profession we 
joined to, or joined in ; that a spirit of charity would soon 


412 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


work us all up into right principles. And, in a word, as he 
thought that the like charity would make us all Catholics, 
so I told him I believed had all the members of his church 
the like moderation, they would soon be all Protestants. 
And there we left that part, for we never disputed at all. 

However, I talked to him another way, and, taking him by 
the hand, “ My friend,” said I, “ I wish all the clergy of the 
Romish church were blest with such moderation, and had 
an equal share of your charity. I am entirely of your opin- 
ion; but I must tell you that if you should preach such 
doctrine in Spain or Italy, they would put you into the 
Inquisition.” 

“It may be so,” said he. “ I know not what they might 
do in Spain or Italy; but I will not say they would be the 
better Christians for that severity, for I am sure there is no 
heresy in too much charity.” 

Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business 
there was over, so we went back our own way, and when we 
came back we found them waiting to be called in. Observ- 
ing this, I asked my clergyman if we should discover to him 
that we had seen him under the bush or no. And it was his 
opinion we should not, but that we should talk to him first, 
and hear what he would say to us. So we called him in 
alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began 
with him thus: — 

“Will Atkins,” said I, “prithee, what education had you? 
What was your father ? ” 

IV, A . — A better man than ever I shall be. Sir, my 
father was a clergyman. 

R. C. — What education did he give you ? 

IV. A . — He would have taught me well, sir; but I de- 
spised all education, instruction, or correction, like a beast, 
as I was. 

R. C. — It’s true, Solomon says, “He that despises 
reproof is brutish.” 

W. A. — Ay, sir, I was brutish indeed; I murdered my 
father. For God’s sake, sir, talk no more about that, sir. 
I murdered my poor father. 

Pr . — Fla! a murderer! 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


413 


[Here the priest started, — for I interpreted every word as 
he spoke it, — and looked pale. It seems he believed that 
Will had really killed his own father.] 

R. C. — No, no, sir; I do not understand him so. Will 
Atkins, explain yourself. You did not kill your father, did 
you, with your own hand ? 

IV. A. — No, sir; I did not cut his throat, but I cut the 
thread of his comforts and shortened his days. I broke his 
heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most 
tender, affectionate treatment that ever father gave, or child 
could receive. 

R. C. — Well, I did not ask you about your father to 
extort this confession. I pray God give you repentance for 
it, and forgive you that and all your other sins ; but I asked 
you because I see that, though you have not much learning, 
yet you are not so ignorant as some are in things that are 
good, — that you have known more of religion, a great deal, 
than you have practiced. 

IV. A . — Though you, sir, did not extort the confession 
that I made about my father, conscience does ; and, when- 
ever we come to look back upon our lives, the sins against 
our indulgent parents are certainly the first that touch us ; 
the wounds they make lie the deepest, and the weight they 
leave will lie heaviest upon the mind of all the sins we can 
commit. 

1 ?. C. — You talk too feelingly and sensibly for me, 
Atkins. I cannot bear it. 

W. A. — You bear it, master! I dare say you know 
nothing of it. 

R. C. — Yes, Atkins; every shore, every hill, nay, I may 
say every tree in this island is witness to the anguish of my 
soul for my ingratitude and base usage of a good, tender 
father, — a father much like yours, by your description. 
And I murdered my father, as well as you, Will Atkins ; but 
I think, for all that, my repentance is short of yours, too, by 
a great deal. 

[I would have said more if I could have restrained my 
passions ; but I thought this poor man’s repentance was so 
much sincerer than mine that I was going to leave off the 


4i4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


discourse and retire; and thought that, instead of my going 
about to teach and instruct him, the man was a teacher and 
instructor to me, in a most surprising and unexpected 
manner.] 

I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly 
affected with it, and said to me, “ Did I not say, sir, that 
when this man was converted he would preach to us all? 
I tell you, sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, here 
will be no need of me ; he will make Christians of all in the 
island.” But, having a little composed myself, I renewed 
my discourse with Will Atkins. 

“But, Will,” said I, “how comes the sense of this matter 
to touch you just now?” 

IV. A. — Sir, you have set me about a work that has 
struck a dart through my very soul. I have been talking 
about God and religion to my wife, in order, as you directed 
me, to make a Christian of her, and she has preached such 
a sermon to me as I shall never forget while I live. 

R. C. — No, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; 
but when you were moving religious arguments to her, con- 
science has flung them back upon you. 

IV. A. — Ay, sir, with such a force as is not to be resisted. 

R. C. — Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you 
and your wife, for I know something of it already. 

W. A. — Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account 
of it ; I am too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to ex- 
press it; but let her have said what she will, and though I 
cannot give you an account of it, this I can tell you of it, 
that I resolve to amend and reform my life. 

R. C. — But tell us some of it. How did you begin, Will? 
for this has been an extraordinary case, that’s certain. 
She has preached a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this 
upon you. 

IV. A. — Why, I first told her the nature of our laws 
about marriage, and what the reasons were that men and 
women were obliged to enter into such compacts, as it was 
neither in the power of one or other to break ; that other- 
wise, order and justice could not be maintained, and men 
would run from their wives, and abandon their children, mix 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 4*S 

confusedly with one another, and neither families be kept 
entire, or inheritances be settled by legal descent. 

R. C. — You talk like a civilian, Will; could you make 
her understand what you meant by inheritance and families? 
They know no such thing among the savages, but marry any- 
how, without regard to relation, consanguinity, or family; 
brother and sister; nay, as I have been told, even the father 
and daughter, and the son and the mother. 

W. A. — I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife 
assures me of the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps 
for any farther relations they may not be so exact as we are : 
but she tells me they never touch one another in the near 
relations you speak of. 

R. C. — Well, what did she say to what you told her? 

W. A. — She said she liked it very well, and it was much 
better than in her country. 

R. C. — But did you tell her what marriage was ? 

W. A. — Ay, ay, there began all our dialogue. I asked 
her if she w r ould be married to me our way? She asked me 
what way that was ? I told her marriage was appointed by 
God ; and here we had a strange talk together, indeed, as 
ever man and wife had, I believe. 

[This dialogue between W. Atkins and his wife, as I took 
it down in writing, just after he told it me, was as follows :] 

Wife. — Appointed by your God ! Why, have you a God 
in your country? 

W. A. — Yes, my dear, God is in every country. 

Wife. — No you God in my country; my country have the 
great old Benamuckee God. 

W. A. — Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is. 
God is in heaven, and made the heaven and the earth, the 
sea, and all that in them is. 

Wife. — No makee de earth ; no you God make all earth, 
no make my country. 

[W. A. laughed a little at her expression of God not mak- 
ing her country.] 

Wife. — No laugh, why laugh me ? This no thing to laugh. 

[He was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more se- 
rious than he at first. 


416 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

IV. A. — That’s true indeed, I will not laugh any more, 
my dear. 

Wife . — Why you say, you God make all ? 

W. A. — Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and 
you, and me, and all things; for he is the only true God. 
There is no God but him; he lives forever in Heaven. 

Wife. — Why you no tell me long ago ? 

W.A. — That’s true indeed, but I have been a wicked 
wretch, and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with 
anything before, but have lived without God in the world 
myself. 

Wife. — What, have you de great God in your country, you 
no know him ? No say “ O ” to him ? No do good thing for 
him? That no possible ! 

W. A. — It is too true; though for all that, we live as if 
there was no God in heaven, or that he had no power on 
earth. 

Wife. — But why God let you do so? Why he no makee 
you good live ? 

W. A. — It is all our own fault. 

Wife. — But you say me he is great, much great, have 
much great power ; can makee kill when he will; why he no 
makee kill when you no serve him? No say “O” to him? 
No be good mans ? 

W.A. — That is true; he might strike me dead, and I 
ought to expect it, for I have been a wicked wretch, that is 
true ; but God is merciful, and does not deal with us as we 
deserve. 

Wife. — But then, do not you tell God tankee for that 
too ? 

W.A. — No indeed, I have not thanked God for his 
mercy, any more than I have feared God for his power. 

Wife. — Then you God no God; me no think, believe, he 
be such one, great much power, strong; no makee kill you, 
though you makee him much angry. 

W.A. — What! will my wicked life hinder you from 
believing in God ? What a dreadful creature am I ; and 
what a sad truth is it, that the horrid lives of Christians 
hinders the conversion of heathens ! 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


417 


Wife . — How me tink you have great much God up there, 
(she points up to heaven), and yet no do well, no do good 
thing? Can he tell ? Sure he no tell what you do. 

W. A. — Yes, yes, he knows and sees all things ; he hears 
us speak, sees what we do, knows what we think, though 
we do not speak. 

Wife. — What ! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the 
great d — n ? 

W. A.- — Yes, yes, he hears it all. 

Wife. — Where be then the muchee great power strong? 

W . A.- — He is merciful, that’s all we can say for it; and 
this proves him to be the true God. He is God and not 
man ; and, therefore, we are not consumed. 

[Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror, to 
think how he could tell his wife so clearly that God sees, 
and hears, and knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and 
all that we do ; and yet that he had dared to do all the vile 
things he had done.] 

Wife. — Merciful ! what you call that . 

W. A. — He is our father and maker, and he pities and 
spares us. 

Wife. — So then he never makee kill, never angry when 
you do wicked? then he no good himself, or no great able. 

W.A. — Yes, yes, my dear, he is infinitely good, and 
infinitely great, and able to punish too ; and sometimes, to 
show his justice and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to 
destroy sinners and make examples ; many are cut off in 
their sins. 

Wife. — But no make kill you yet, then he tell you maybe 
that he no make you kill, so you make de bargain with him; 
you do bad thing, he no be angry at you, when he be angry 
at other mans. 

W. A. — No, indeed; my sins are all presumptions upon 
his goodness; and he would be infinitely just if he de- 
stroyed me, as he has done other men. 

Wife. — Well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead, what 
you say to him for that, you no tell him tankee for all that 
too ? 

W.A. — I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that’s true. 

*4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


418 

Wife. — Why? He no makee you much good better, 
you say he makee you. 

W. A. — He made me, as he made all the world; ’tis I 
have deformed myself, and abused his goodness, and made 
myself an abominable wretch. 

Wife. — I wish you makee God know me, I no makee 
him angry, I no do bad wicked thing. 

[Here Will Atkins said his heart sank within him, to hear 
a poor, untaught creature desire to be taught to know God, 
and he such a wicked wretch that he could not say one 
word to her about God, but what the reproach of his own 
carriage would make most irrational to her to believe ; nay, 
that already she had told him that she could not believe in 
God, because he that was so wicked was not destroyed.] 

W. A. — My dear, you mean you wish I could teach you 
to know God, not God to know you ; for he knows you 
already, and every thought in your heart. 

Wife. — Why then, he knows what I say to you now? 
He knows me wish to know him. How shall me know 
who makee me ? 

W.A. — Poor creature, he must teach thee, I cannot 
teach thee. I’ll pray to him to teach thee to know him, and 
to forgive me that I am unworthy to teach thee ? 

[The poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him 
to make her know God, and her wishing to know him, that, 
he said, he fell down on his knees before her, and prayed to 
God to enlighten her mind with the saving knowledge of 
Jesus Christ, and to pardon his sins, and accept of his being 
the unworthy instrument of instructing her in the principles 
of religion ; after which, he sat down by her again, and their 
dialogue went on. N. B. This was the time when we saw 
him kneel down, and lift up his hands.] 

Wife. — What you put down the knee for ? What you 
hold up the hand for ? What you say ? Who you speak 
to ? What is all that ? 

W . A. — My dear, I bow my knees in token of my sub- 
mission to him that made me. I said “ O ” to him, as you call 
it, and as you say your old men do to their idol Benamukee ; 
that is, I prayed to him. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


419 


Wife. — What you say “ O ” to him for? 

W.A. — I prayed to him to open your eyes and your 
understanding, that you may know him, and be accepted by 
him. 

Wife. — Can he do that, too ? 

W.A. — Yes, he can ; he can do all things. 

Wife. — But now he hear what you say ? 

W. A. — Yes, he has bid us pray to him, and promised to 
hear us. 

Wife. — Bid you pray? When he bid you? How he bid 
you ? What ! you hear him speak ? 

W.A. — No, we do not hear him speak, but he has 
revealed himself many ways to us. 

[Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that 
God has revealed himself to us by word, and what his word 
was ; but at last he told it her thus :] 

W.A. — God has spoken to some good men in former 
days, even from Heaven, by plain words; and God has 
inspired good men by his spirit; and they have written all 
his laws down in a book. 

Wife. — Me no understand that. Where is book? 

W. A. — Alas ! my poor creature ! I have not this book; 
but I hope I shall one time or other get it for you, and help 
you to read it. 

[Here he embraced her with great affection, but with inex- 
pressible grief that he had not a Bible.] 

Wife. — But how you makee me know that God teachee 
them to write that book? 

W. A. — By the same rule that we know him to be God. 

Wife. — What rule, what way you know Him? 

W. A. — Because he teaches and commands nothing but 
what is good, righteous and holy, and tends to make us per- 
fectly good, as well as perfectly happy ; and because he 
forbids and commands us to avoid all that is wicked, that is 
evil in itself, or evil in its consequences. 

Wife. — That me would understand: that me fain see. If 
he teachee all good thing, forbid all wicked thing, he reward 
all good thing, punish all wicked thing, he make all thing, 
he give all thing, he hear me when I say “ O ” to him, as you 


420 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


go do just now, he makee me good if I wish be good, he 
spare me, no makee kill me when I no be good, — all this 
you say he do, yet he be great God. Me take, think, believe 
him be great God ; me say “ O ” to him, too, with you, my 
dear. 

[Here the poor man could forbear no longer; but, raising 
her up, made her kneel by him, and he prayed to God aloud 
to instruct her in the knowledge of himself by his Spirit, 
and that, by some good providence, if possible, she might, 
some time or other, come to have a Bible, that she might 
read the word of God, and be taught by it to know him.] 

This was the time that we saw him lift her up by the 
hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above. 

They had several other discourses, it seems, after this, too 
long to set down here; and, particularly, she made him 
promise that, since he confessed his ewn life had been a 
wicked, abominable course of provocation against God, that 
he would reform it, and not make God angry any more, lest 
he should make him dead, as she called it, and then she 
should be left alone, and never be taught to know this God 
better; and lest he should be miserable, as he had told her 
wicked men should be after death. 

This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, 
but particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, 
wonderfully surprised with it, but under the greatest afflic- 
tion imaginable that he could not talk to her, that he could 
not speak English, to make her understand him; and, as 
she spoke but very broken English, he could not understand 
her. However, he turned himself to me, and told me that 
he believed there must be more to do with this woman than 
to marry her. I did not understand him at first, but at 
length he explained himself, viz : that she ought to be 
baptized. 

I agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going 
about it presently. “No, no; hold, sir,” said he; “though 
I would have her be baptized, by all means, yet I must ob- 
serve that Will Atkins, her husband, has indeed brought 
her, in a wonderful manner, to be willing to embrace a reli- 
gious life, and has given her just ideas of the being of a 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


421 


God, of his power, justice, mercy; yet I desire to know of 
him if he has said anything to her of Jesus Christ, and of 
the salvation of sinners, of the nature of faith in him and 
redemption by him, of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, the 
last judgment, and a future state.” 

I called Will Atkins again and asked him; but the poor 
fellow fell immediately into tears, and told us he had said 
something to her of all those things, but that he was himself 
so wicked a creature, and his own conscience so reproached 
him with his horrid, ungodly life, that he trembled at the 
apprehensions that her knowledge of him should lessen the 
attention she should give to those things, and make her 
rather contemn religion than receive it. But he “ was 
assured,” he said, “that her mind was so disposed to receive 
due impressions of all those things, that if I would but dis- 
course with her, she would make it appear to my satisfac- 
tion that my labor would not be lost upon her.” 

Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as inter- 
preter between my religious priest and the woman, I en- 
treated him to begin with her ; but, sure, such a sermon was 
never preached by a Popish priest in these latter ages of the 
world. And, as I told him, I thought he had all the zeal, all 
the knowledge, all the sincerity of a Christian, without the 
error of a Roman Catholic ; and that I took him to be 
such a clergyman as the Roman bishops were before the 
Church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the 
consciences of men. 

In a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the 
knowledge of Christ, and of redemption by him, not with 
wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions 
of a God, but with joy and faith, — with an affection and a 
surprising degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, 
much less to be expressed ; and, at her own request, she was 
baptized. 

When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him 
that he would perform that office with some caution, that 
the man might not perceive he was of the Roman church, if 
possible, because of other ill consequences which might 
attend a difference among us in that very religion which we 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


422 

were instructing the other in. He told me that, as he had 
no consecrated chapel, no proper things for the office, I 
should see he would do it in a manner that I should not 
know by it that he was a Roman Catholic myself, if I had 
not known it before. And so he did ; for, saying only some 
words over to himself in Latin, which I could not under- 
stand, he poured a whole dishful of water upon the woman’s 
head, pronouncing, in French, very loud, “ Mary,” (which 
was the name her husband desired me to give her, for I was 
her godfather,) “I baptize thee, in the Name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; ” so that none could 
know anything by it what religion he was of. Fie gave the 
benediction afterwards in Latin ; but either Will Atkins did 
not know but it was in French, or else did not take notice of 
it at that time. 

As soon as this was over, we married them ; and, after the 
marriage was over, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in 
a very affectionate manner, exhorted him not only to perse- 
vere in that good disposition he was in, but to support the 
convictions that were upon him by a resolution to reform his 
life; told him it was in vain to say he repented, if he did not 
forsake his crimes; represented to him how God had hon- 
ored him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to 
the knowledge of the Christian religion, and that he should 
be careful he did not dishonor the grace of God; and that, 
if he did, he would see the heathen a better Christian than 
himself, the savage converted, and the instrument cast 
away. 

He said a great many good things to them both; and 
then, recommending them, in a few words, to God’s good- 
ness, gave them the benediction again, I repeating every- 
thing to them in English; and thus ended the ceremony. I 
think it was the most pleasant, agreeable day to me that 
ever I passed in my whole life. 

But my clergyman had not done yet ; his thoughts hung 
continually upon the conversion of the seven-and-thirty sav- 
ages, and fain he would have stayed upon the island to have 
undertaken it ; but I convinced him, first, that his under- 
taking was impracticable in itself; and, secondly, that per- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 423 

haps I would put it into a way of being done in his absence 
to his satisfaction, — of which, by-and-bye. 

Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow 
compass, I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the 
young man whom I had taken out of the famished ship’s 
company came to me and told me he understood I had a 
clergyman with me, and that I caused the Englishmen to be 
married to the savages, whom they called wives; that he 
had a match, too, which he desired might be finished before 
I went, between two Christians, which he hoped would not 
be disagreeable to me. 

I knew this must be the young woman who was his 
mother’s servant, for there was no other Christian woman 
on the island ; so I began to persuade him not to do any- 
thing of that kind rashly, or because he found himself in this 
solitary circumstance. I represented to him that he had 
some considerable substance in the world, and good friends, 
as I understood by himself, and by his maid also; that his 
maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to 
him, she being six or seven-and-twenty years old, and he not 
above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very probably, 
with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness, and 
come into his own country again, and that then it would be 
a thousand to one but he would repent his choice ; and the 
dislike of that circumstance might be disadvantageous to 
both. I was going to say more, but he interrupted me, smil- 
ing, and told me with a great deal of modesty, that I mistook 
in my guesses; that he had nothing of that kind in his 
thoughts, his present circumstance being melancholy and dis- 
consolate enough ; and he was very glad to hear that I had 
thoughts of putting them in a way to see their country again, 
and nothing should have put him upon staying there, but that 
the voyage I was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, 
and would carry him quite out of the reach of all his friends; 
that he had nothing to desire of me, but that I would settle 
him in some little property in the island where he was, give 
him a servant or two and some few necessaries, and he would 
settle himself here like a planter, waiting the good time 
when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him, 


424 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came 
into England; that he would give me some letters to his 
friends in London, to let them know how good I had been 
to him, and in what part of the world, and what circumstance 
I had left him in; that he promised me, that whenever I re- 
deemed him, the plantation, and all the improvement he had 
made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be 
wholly mine. 

His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his 
youth, and was the more agreeable to me, because he told 
me positively the match was not for himself. I gave him all 
possible assurances, that if I lived to come safe to England, 

I would deliver his letters, and do his business effectually, 
and that he might depend I would never forget the circum- 
stance I had left him in; but still I was impatient to know 
who were the persons to be married, upon which he told me 
it was my Jack-of-all-Trades and his maid Susan. 

I was most agreeably surprised, when he named the match, 
for indeed I thought it very suitable. The character of that 
man I have given already ; and as for the maid, she was a 
very honest, modest, sober and religious young woman, had 
a very good share of sense, was agreeable enough in her per- 
son, spoke very handsomely and to the purpose, always with 
decency and good manners, and not backward to speak when 
anything required it, or impertinently forward to speak when 
it was not her business; very handy and housewifely in 
anything that was before her; an excellent manager, and fit 
indeed to have been governess to the whole island; she 
knew very well how to behave to all kind of folks she had 
about her, and to better, if she had found any there. 

The match being proposed in this manner, we married 
them the same day, and as I was father at the altar, as I may 
say, and gave her away, so I gave her a portion : for I ap- 
pointed her and her husband a handsome large space of 
ground for their plantation. And indeed, this match, and 
the proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small 
property in the island, put me upon parceling it out amongst 
them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their 
situation. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


425 


This sharing out the land to them, I left to Will Atkins, 
who indeed was now grown a most sober, grave, managing 
fellow, perfectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious, and, 
as far as I may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, 
I verily believe, was a true, sincere penitent. 

He divided things so justly, and so much to every one’s 
satisfaction, that they only desired one general writing under 
my hand for the whole, which I caused to be drawn up and 
signed and sealed to them, setting out the bounds and situa- 
tion of every man’s plantation, and testifying that I gave 
them thereby severally a right to the whole possession and 
inheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with their 
improvements to them and their heirs, reserving all the rest 
of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for 
every particular plantation after eleven years, if I, or any 
one from me, or in my name came to demand it, producing 
an attested copy of the same writing. 

As to the government and laws among them, I told them 
I was not capable of giving them better rules than they 
were able to give themselves ; only made them promise me 
to live in love and good neighborhood with one another; 
and so I prepared to leave them. 

One thing I must not omit; and this is, that being now 
settled in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and 
having much business in hand, it was but odd to have seven 
and thirty Indians live in a nook of the island independent, 
and, indeed, unemployed; for, excepting the providing them- 
selves food, which they had difficulty enough in, too, some- 
times, they had no manner of business or property to manage. 
I proposed, therefore, to the governor Spaniard, that he 
should go to them with Friday’s father, and propose to 
them to remove, and either plant for themselves or take 
them into their several families as servants to be maintained 
for their labor, but without being absolute slaves; for I 
would not admit them to make them slaves by force, by any 
means, because they had their liberty given them by capitula- 
tion, and as it were, articles of surrender, which they ought 
not to break. 

They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


426 

very cheerfully along with him; so we allotted them land 
and plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the 
rest chose to be employed as servants in the several families 
we had settled; and thus my colony was in a manner settled, 
as follows: The Spaniards possessed my original habita- 
tion, which was the capital city, and extended their planta- 
tions all along the side of the brook, which made the creek 
that I have so often described, as far as my bower ; and as 
they increased their culture, it went always eastward. The 
English lived in the north-east part, where Will Atkins and 
his comrades began, and came on southward and south- 
west, towards the back part of the Spaniards, and every 
plantation had a great addition of land to take in, if they 
found occasion, so that they need not justle one another for 
want of room. 

All the east end of the island was left uninhabited, that if 
any of the savages should come on shore there, only for 
their usual customary barbarities, they might come and go ; 
if they disturbed nobody, nobody would disturb them; and 
no doubt but they were often ashore, and went away again; 
for I never heard that the planters were attacked or disturbed 
any more. 

It now came into my thoughts, that I had hinted to my 
friend the clergyman, that the work of converting the 
savages might perhaps be set on foot in his absence to his 
satisfaction; and I told him, that now I thought it was put 
in a fair way ; for the savages being thus divided among the 
Christians, if they would but every one of them do their 
part with those which came under their hands, I hoped it 
might have a very good effect. 

He agreed presently in that. “ If,” said he, “they will 
do their part; but how,” said he, “shall we obtain that of 
them ? ” I told him we would call them together, and leave 
it in charge with them, or go to them one by one, which he 
thought best; so we divided it, he to speak to the Spaniards, 
who were all Papists, and I to the English, who were all 
Protestants ; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and 
made them promise that they never would make any dis- 
tinction of Papist or Protestant, in their exhorting the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


427 

savages to turn Christians, but teach them the general 
knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus 
Christ; and they likewise promised us, that they would 
never have any differences or disputes one with another 
about religion. 

When I came to Will Atkins’s house (I may call it so, for 
such a house, or such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was 
not standing in the world again), I say, when I came there, 
I found the young woman I have mentioned above, and Will 
Atkins’s wife, were become intimate; and this prudent, 
religious young woman had perfected the work William 
Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four days 
after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage 
woman was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard 
of any like her in all my observation or conversation in the 
world. 

It came next into my mind in the morning before I went 
to them, that amongst all the needful things I had to leave 
with them, I had not left them a Bible, in which I showed 
myself less considering for them than my good friend, the 
widow, was for me, when she sent me the cargo of an hun- 
dred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three 
Bibles and a prayer-book. However, the good woman’s 
charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined; for 
they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those 
that made much better use of them than I had done. 

I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came 
to Will Atkins’s tent or house, and found the young woman 
and Atkins’s baptized wife had been discoursing of religion 
together (for Will Atkins told it me, with a great deal of 
joy), I asked if they were together now, and he said “Yes.” 
So I went into the house, and he with me, and we found 
them together very earnest in discourse. “ O sir,” said Will 
Atkins, “when God has sinners to reconcile to himself, and 
aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger; my wife 
has got a new instructor ! I knew I was unworthy, as I 
was incapable of that work. That young woman has been 
sent thither from heaven ; she is enough to convert a whole 
island of savages ! ” The young woman blushed, and rose 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


428 

up to go away, but I desired her to sit still ; I told her she 
had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped God would 
bless her in it. 

We talked a little, and I did not perceive they had any 
book among them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand 
in my pocket and pulled out my Bible. “ Here,” said I, to 
Atkins, “ I have brought you an assistant that perhaps you 
had not before.” The man was so confounded, that he was 
not able to speak for some time ; but, recovering himself, he 
takes it with both his hands, and turning to his wife, “ Here, 
my dear,” said he, “did I not tell you our God, though he 
lives above, could hear what we said? Here’s the book I 
prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush ; 
now God has heard us and sent it.” When he had said so, 
the man fell into such transports of a passionate joy, that 
between the joy of having it, and giving God thanks for it, 
the tears ran down his face like a child that was crying. 

The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into 
a mistake that none of us were aware of; for she firmly 
believed God had sent the book upon her husband’s peti- 
tion. It is true, that providentially it was so, and might be 
taken so in a consequent sense; but I believe it would have 
been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the 
poor woman to have believed that an express messenger 
came from heaven, on purpose to bring that individual book. 
But it was too serious a matter to suffer any delusion to 
take place; so I turned to the young woman, and told her 
we did not desire to impose upon the new convert, in her 
first and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged 
her to explain to her, that God may be very properly said to 
answer our petitions, when, in the course of his providence, 
such things are in a particular manner brought to pass as 
we petitioned for; but we do not expect returns from heaven 
in a miraculous and particular manner, and that it is our 
mercy that it is not so. 

This the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that 
there was, I assure you, no priestcraft used here; and I 
should have thought it one of the most unjustifiable frauds 
in the world to have had it so. But the surprise of joy upon 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


429 


Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there we 
may be sure, there was no delusion. Sure, no nlan was 
ever more thankful in the world for anything of its kind, 
than he was for his Bible ; nor, I believe, never any man was 
glad of a Bible from a better principle ; and though he had 
been a most profligate creature, desperate, headstrong, out- 
rageous, furious, and wicked to a great degree, — yet this 
man is a standing rule to us all, for the well instructing 
children, viz : that parents should never give over to teach 
and instruct, or ever despair of the success of their endeav- 
ors, let the children be ever so obstinate, refractory, or, to 
appearance, insensible of instruction ; for if ever God in his 
providence touches the consciences of such, the force of 
their education returns upon them, and the early instruction 
of parents is not lost, though it may have been many years 
laid asleep ; but some time or other they may find the bene- 
fit of it. 

Thus it was with this poor man, however ignorant he 
was, or divested of religion and Christian knowledge. He 
found he had some to do with now, more ignorant than 
himself; and that the least part of the instruction of his 
good father that could now come to his mind, was of use 
to him. 

Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his 
father used to insist much upon the inexpressible value of 
the Bible, the privilege and blessing of it to nations, fami- 
lies, and persons ; but he never entertained the least notion 
of the worth of it till now, when, being able to talk to 
heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of 
the written oracle for his assistance. 

The young woman was very glad of it also for the present 
occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth on 
board our ship among their goods, which were not yet 
brought on shore. And now, having said so many things of 
this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of 
her, and myself, which has something in it very informing 
and remarkable. 

I have related to what extremity the poor young woman 
was reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and 


43 ° 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


did die on board that unhappy ship we met at sea ; and how, 
the whole ship’s company being reduced to the last extrem- 
ity, the gentlewoman and her son, and this maid, were first 
hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected 
and starved; that is to say, brought to the last extremity 
of hunger. 

One day, being discoursing with her upon the extremities 
they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, by what she 
had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared. She 
told me she believed she could ; and she told her tale very 
distinctly, thus : 

“ First, sir,” said she, u we had for some days fared 
exceeding hard, and suffered very great hunger ; but now at 
last we were wholly without food of any kind, except sugar, 
and a little wine, and a little water. The first day after I 
had received no food at all, I found myself towards evening, 
first empty and sickish at my stomach, and nearer night 
mightily inclined to yawning and sleepy. I laid down on a 
couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three 
hours, and awakened a little refreshed, having taken a glass 
of wine when I lay down. After being about three hours 
awake, it being about five o’clock in the morning, I found 
myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and lay down again, 
but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus 
I continued all the second day, with a strange variety, first 
hungry, then sick again, with Teachings to vomit. The 
second night, being obliged to go to bed again without any 
food, more than a draught of fair water, and being asleep, I 
dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and that the market was 
mightily stocked with provisions, that I bought some for 
my mistress, and went and dined very heartily. 

“ I thought my stomach was as full after this as any would 
have been after or at a good dinner; but when 1 waked, I 
was exceedingly sunk in my spirits, to find myself in the 
extremity of famine. The last glass of wine we had, I drank, 
and put sugar in it, because of its having some spirit to 
supply nourishment; but there being no substance in the 
stomach for the digesting office to -work upon, I found the 
only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 431 

the stomach into the head ; and I lay, as they told me, stupid, 
and senseless, as one drunk for some time. 

“ The third day, in the morning, after a night of strange 
and confused, inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than 
sleeping, I waked, ravenous and furious with hunger; and I 
question, had not my understanding returned and conquered 
it, — I say, I question whether, if I had been a mother, and 
had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe 
or not. 

“ This lasted about three hours, during which time I was 
twice raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young 
master told me, and as he can now inform you. 

“ In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction, whether by 
the motion of the ship, or some slip of my foot, I know not, 
I fell down, and struck my face against the corner of a palat 
bed, in which my mistress lay; and with the blow the blood 
gushed out of my nose ; and the cabin-boy bringing me a 
little basin, I sat down and bled into it a great deal; and as 
the blood run from me, I came to myself ; and the violence 
of the flame or the fever I was in, abated, and so did the 
ravenous part of the hunger. 

“Then I grew sick, and reached to vomit, but could not; 
for I had nothing in my stomach to bring up. After I had bled 
some time, I swooned, and they all believed I was dead; 
but I came to myself soon after, and then had a most dread- 
ful pain in my stomach, not to be described; not like the 
colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food. And towards 
night it went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing 
for food ; something like, as I suppose, the longing of a 
woman with child. I took another draught of water with 
sugar in it, but my stomach loathed the sugar, and brought 
it all up again ; then I took a draught of water without 
sugar, and that stayed with me ; and I laid me down upon 
the bed, praying most heartily that it would please God to 
take me away ; and composing my mind in hopes of it, I 
slumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, 
being light with vapors from an empty stomach. I recom- 
mended my soul then to God, and earnestly wished that 
somebody would throw me into the sea. 


432 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


“ All this while my mistress lay by me, just as I thought, 
expiring, but bore it with much more patience than I, and 
gave the last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young 
master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him 
to eat it, and I believe it saved his life. 

*• Towards the morning I slept again, and first when I 
awaked, I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that 
had a second fit of violent hunger. I got up ravenous, and 
in a most dreadful condition. Had my mistress been dead, 
as much as I loved her, I am certain I should have eaten a 
piece of her flesh, with as much relish, and as unconcerned, 
as ever I did the flesh of any creature appointed for food ; 
and once or twice I was going to bite my own arm. At last 
I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bled at my 
nose the day before. I ran to it, and swallowed it with such 
haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I had wondered no- 
body had taken it before, and afraid it would be taken from 
me now. 

“ Though, after it was down, the thoughts of it filled me 
with horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I drank a 
draught of fair water, and was composed and refreshed for 
some hours after it. This was the fourth day, and thus I 
held it till towards night, when, within the compass of three 
hours, I had all these several circumstances over again, one 
after another, viz : sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the 
stomach, then ravenous again, then sick again, then lunatic, 
then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of 
an hour, and my strength wasted exceedingly. At night I 
laid me down, having no comfort, but in the hope that I 
should die before morning. 

“ All this night I had no sleep ; but the hunger was now 
turned into a disease, and I had a terrible colic and griping, 
by wind, instead of food, having found its way into the 
bowels. And in this condition I lay till morning, when I 
was surprised a little with the cries and lamentations of my 
young master, who called out to me that his mother was 
dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I had not strength to 
rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to 
give very little signs of life. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


433 


“ I had then such convulsions in my stomach, for want of 
some sustenance, that I cannot describe, with such frequent 
throes and pangs of appetite that nothing but the tortures 
of death can imitate. And in this condition I was when I 
heard the seamen above cry out, ‘A sail ! a sail ! ’ and halloo 
and jump about as if they were distracted. 

“ I was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress 
much less ; and my young master was so sick that I thought 
he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabin door, 
or get any account what it was that occasioned such a com- 
motion, nor had we had any conversation with the ship’s 
company for two days, they having told us that they had not 
a mouthful of anything to eat in the ship ; and they told us 
afterwards they thought we had been dead. 

“It was this dreadful condition we were in when you were 
sent to save our lives ; and how you found us, sir, you know 
as well as I, and better to.” 

This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account 
of starving to death as I confess I never met with, and was 
exceeding entertaining to me. I am the rather apt to believe 
it to be a true account, because the youth gave me an 
account of a good part of it, though, I must own, not so dis- 
tinct and so feelingly as his maid ; and the rather, because, 
it seems, his mother fed him at the price of her own life. 
But the poor maid, through her constitution, being stronger 
than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a weakly 
woman, too, she might struggle harder with it, — I say, the 
poor maid might be supposed to feel the extremity some- 
thing sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to 
keep the last bit something longer than she parted with any 
to relieve the maid. No question, as the case is here related, 
if our ship, or some other, had not so providentially met 
them, a few days more would have ended all their lives, 
unless they had prevented it by eating one another. And 
even that, as their case stood, would have served them but a 
little while, they being five hundred leagues from any land, 
or any possibility of relief other than in the miraculous 
manner it happened. But this is by the way ; I return to 
my disposition of things among the people. 


434 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


And, first, it is to be observed here, that for many reasons 
I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop I 
had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; 
for I found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of 
divisions among them that I saw it plainly, had I set up the 
sloop and left it among them they would, upon every light 
disgust, have separated and gone away from one another, or, 
perhaps, have turned pirates, and so made the island a den 
of thieves instead of a plantation of sober and religious 
people, so as I intended it. Nor did I leave the two pieces 
of brass cannon that I had on board, or the two quarter-deck 
guns, that my nephew took extraordinarily, for the same 
reason. I thought it was enough to qualify them for a de- 
fensive war against any that should invade them; but not to 
set them up for an offensive war, or to encourage them to 
go abroad to attack others, which, in the end, would only 
bring ruin and destruction upon themselves and all their 
undertaking. I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, 
for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place. 

I have now done with the island. I left them all in good 
circumstances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on 
board my ship again the fifth day of May, having been five- 
and-twenty days among them. And as they were all resolved 
to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I prom- 
ised to send some farther relief from the Brazils, if I could 
possibly find an opportunity; and particularly, I promised 
to send them some cattle, such as sheep, hogs, and cows. 
For as to the two cows and calves which I brought from 
England, we had been obliged by the length of our voyage 
to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them. 

The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, 
we set sail, and arrived at the Bay of All-Saints in the Bra- 
zils, in about twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable 
in our passage, but this : that about three days after we sailed, 
being becalmed, and the current setting strong to the E. N. 
E., running, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, 
were driven something out of our course, and once or twice 
our men cried land to the eastward ; but whether it was the 
continent or islands, we could not tell by any means. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


435 


But the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and 
the weather calm, we saw the sea, as it were covered towards 
the land with something very black ; not being able to dis- 
cover what it was, till after some time, our chief mate going 
up the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with 
a perspective, cried out it was an army. I could not imag- 
ine what he meant by an army, and spoke a little hastily, 
calling the fellow a fool, or some such word. “ Nay, sir,” 
said he, “don’t be angry, for ’tis an army and a fleet too ; for 
I believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them 
paddle along, and they are coming towards us too, apace.” 

I was a little surprised then indeed, and so was my nephew, 
the captain ; for he had heard such terrible stories of them 
in the island, and having never been in those seas before, 
that he could not tell what to think of it, but said two or 
three times, we should all be devoured. I must confess, 
considering we were becalmed, and the current set strong 
towards the shore, I liked it the worse. However, I bade him 
not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor, as soon as we 
came so near to know that we must engage them. 

The weather continued calm, and they came on apace 
towards us ; so I gave order to come to an anchor, and furl 
all our sails. As for the savages, I told them they had noth- 
ing to fear but fire ; and therefore they should get their boats 
out, and fasten them, one close by the head, and the other 
by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in 
that posture. This I did, that the men in the boats might 
be ready with sheets and buckets to put out any fire these 
savages might endeavor to fix to the outside of the ship. 

In this posture we laid by for them, and in a little while 
they came up with us ; but never was such a horrid sight 
seen by Christians. My mate was much mistaken in his 
calculation of their number, I mean of a thousand canoes; 
the most we could make of them when they came up, being 
about a hundred-and-six-and-twenty ; and a great many of 
them too ; for some of them had sixteen or seventeen men 
in them, and some more, and the least six or seven. 

When they came nearer to us they seemed to be struck 
with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which they had 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


436 

doubtless never seen before ; nor could they at first, as we 
afterwards understood, know what to make of us. They 
came boldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed to go 
about to row round us ; but we called to our men in the 
boats not to let them come too near them. 

This very order brought us to an engagement with them, 
without our designing it ; for five or six of their large canoes 
came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with 
their hands to them to keep back, which they understood 
very well, and went back ; but at their retreat, about fifty 
arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of our 
men in the long-boat was very much wounded. 

However, I called to them not to fire by any means; but 
we handed down some deal-boards into the boat, and the 
carpenters presently set up a kind of fence, like waste 
boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if 
they should shoot again. 

About half an hour afterwards they came all up in a body 
astern of us, and pretty near us, so near that we could 
easily discern what they were, though we could not tell 
their design. And I easily found they were some of my 
old friends, the same sort of savages that 1 had been used 
to engage with; and in a little time more they rowed a little 
farther out to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, 
and then rowed down straight upon us, till they came so 
near that they could hear us speak. Upon this I ordered 
all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more 
arrows, and made all our guns ready ; but, being so near as 
to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon the deck, 
and call out aloud to them in his language to know what 
they meant, which accordingly he did. Whether they under- 
stood him or not, that I know not ; but as soon as he had 
called to them, six of them, who were in the foremost or 
nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and immedi- 
ately Friday cried out they were going to shoot. Unhappily 
for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their 
arrows, and to my inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no 
other man being in their sight. 

The poor fellow was shot with no less than three arrows, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 437 

and about three more fell very near him, such unlucky 
marksmen they were. 

I was so enraged with the loss of my old servant, the 
companion of all my sorrows and solitudes, that I immedi- 
ately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot, and 
four with great, and gave them such a broadside as they 
had never heard in their lives before, to be sure. 

They were not above half a cable length off when we 
fired ; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or 
four of their canoes were overset, as we had reason to 
believe, by one shot only. 

I can neither tell how many we killed, or how many we 
wounded at this broadside ; but sure such a fright and hurry 
never was seen among such a multitude. There were thir- 
teen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all, and 
the men all set a-swimming; the rest frighted out of their 
wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little 
care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with 
our shot. So I suppose that they were many of them lost. 
And our men took one poor fellow swimming for his life 
above an hour after they were all gone. 

Our small shot from our cannon must needs kill and 
wound a great many ; but, in short, we never knew anything 
how it went with them ; for they fled so fast, that in three 
hours or thereabouts, we could not see above three or four 
straggling canoes. Nor did we ever see the rest any more; 
for a breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we 
weighed and set sail for the Brazils. 

We had a prisoner, indeed ; but the creature was so sullen 
that he would neither eat or speak ; and we all fancied he 
would starve himself to death ; but I took a way to cure 
him, for I made them take him and turn him into the long- 
boat, and made him believe they would toss him into the 
sea again, and so leave him where they found him, if he 
would not speak. Nor would that do; but they really did 
throw him into the sea, and came away from him; and then 
he followed them ; for he swam like a cork, and called to 
them in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what 
he said ; however, at last, they took him in again, and then he 


43 s ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

began to be more tractable ; nor did I ever design they 
should drown him. 

We were now under sail again; but I was the most dis- 
consolate creature alive, for want of my man Friday, and 
would have been very glad to have gone back to the island, 
to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, 
but it could not be ; so we went on. We had one prisoner, 
as I have said ; and ’twas a long while before we could 
make him understand anything; but, in time, our men 
taught him some English, and he began to be a little tracta- 
ble ; afterwards we enquired \ hat country he came from, 
but could make nothing of what he said ; for his speech 
was so odd, all gutturals, and spoke in the throat in such 
a hollow, odd manner, that we could never form a word 
from him; and we were all of opinion that they might 
speak that language as well if they were gagged as other- 
wise. Nor could we perceive that they had any occasion, 
either for teeth, tongue, lips or palate ; but formed their 
words just as a hunting horn forms a tune with an open 
throat. He told us, however, some time after, when we 
taught him to speak a little English, that they were going 
with their kings to fight a great battle. When he said 
kings, we asked him how many kings? He said they were 
five nation, (we could not make him understand the plural j,) 
and that they all joined to go against two nation. We asked 
him, what made them come up to us? He said “ To makee 
to great wonder look.” [Where it is to be observed that all 
those natives, as also those of Africa, when they learn 
English, they always add two e’s at the end of the words 
where we use one, and make the accent upon them, as make& 
tak&&, and the like ; and we could not break them of it. Nay, 
I could hardly make Friday leave it off, though at last he did.] 

And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take 
my last leave of him. Poor, honest Friday ! We buried him 
with all the decency and solemnity possible, by putting him 
into a coffin, and throwing him into the sea; and I caused 
’em to lire eleven guns for him; and so ended the life of the 
most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant 
that ever man had. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


439 


We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil, and in 
about twelve days’ time we made land in the latitude of five 
degrees south of the line, being the north-easternmost land of 
all that part of America. We kept on S. by E. in sight of 
the shore four days, when we made Cape St Augustine, and 
in three days came to an anchor off the Bay of All Saints, 
the old place of my deliverance, from whence came both my 
good and evil fate. 

Never ship came to this part that had less business than 
I had; and yet it was with great difficulty that we were 
admitted to hold the least correspondence on shore, — not 
my planter himself, who was alive, and made a great figure 
among them ; not my two merchants’ trustees, not the fame 
of my wonderful preservation in that island, could obtain me 
that favor. But my partner, remembering that I had given 
500 moidores to the prior of the Monastery of the Augus- 
tines, and 272 to the poor, went to the monastery and obliged 
the prior that then was to go to the governor and get leave 
for me personally, with the captain and one more, besides 
eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this 
upon condition absolutely capitulated for, that we should not 
offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any 
person away without license. 

They were so strict with us, as to landing any goods, that 
it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore three bales 
of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and 
some linen, which I had brought for a present to my 
partner. 

He was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though, like 
me, he came from little at first; and though he knew not 
that I had the least design of giving him anything, he sent 
me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine and sweet- 
meats, worth above thirty moidores, including some tobacco 
and three or four fine medals in gold. But I was even with 
him in my present, which, as I have said, consisted of fine 
broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine Hollands. Also I 
delivered him about the value of 100 pounds sterling in the 
same goods, for other uses ; and I obliged him to set up the 
sloop which I had brought with me from England, as I have 


440 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the refresh- 
ments I intended to my plantation. 

Accordingly, he got hands and finished the sloop in a 
very few days, for she was ready framed, and I gave the 
master of her such instructions as he could not miss the 
place, — nor did he miss them, as I had an account from my 
partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small 
cargo I sent them ; and one of our seamen, that had been 
on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and 
settle there, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot 
him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and giving 
him some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he 
said he understood, having been an old planter at Maryland, 
and a buccaneer into the bargain. 

I encouraged the fellow by granting all that he desired ; 
and, as an addition, I gave him the savage which we had 
taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the gov- 
ernor Spaniard to give him his share of everything he 
wanted, with the rest. 

When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told 
me there was a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter 
of his acquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure of 
the Church. “ I know not what the matter is with him,” 
said he; “but, on my conscience, I think he is a heretic in 
his heart, and he has been obliged to conceal himself for 
fear of the Inquisition; that he would be very glad of such 
an opportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two 
daughters; and if I would let them go to the island, and 
allot them a plantation, he would give them a small stock to 
begin with, for the officers of the Inquisition had seized all 
his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little 
household stuff and two slaves. And,” said he, “ though I 
hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into 
their hands, for he would assuredly be burnt alive if he 
does.” 

I granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with 
them, and we concealed the man and his wife and daughters 
on board our ship till the sloop put out to go to sea ; and 
then (having put all their goods on board the sloop some 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 441 

time before), we put them on board the sloop after he was 
got out of the bay. 

Our seaman was mightly pleased with this new partner; 
and their stock indeed was much alike rich in tools, in 
preparations, and a farm, but nothing to begin with but as 
above. However, they carried over with them, which was 
worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes, 
with some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Portugal 
man, understood very well. 

Among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the 
island, I sent them, by their sloop, three milch cows, and five 
calves, about twenty-two hogs, among them three sows big 
with pig, two mares, and a stone-horse. 

For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged 
three Portugal women to go, and recommended it to them to 
marry them, and use them kindly. I could have procured 
more women, but I remembered that the poor persecuted 
man had two daughters, and there were but five of the 
Spaniards that wanted ; the rest had wives of their own, 
though in another country. 

All this cargo arrived safe, and as you may easily suppose, 
very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now with 
this addition, between sixty and seventy people, besides 
little children, of which there was a great many. I found 
letters at London from them all, by the way of Lisbon, when 
I came back to England ; of which I shall also take some 
notice immediately. 

I have now done with my island, and all manner of dis- 
course about it ; and whoever reads the rest of my memo- 
randums would do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, 
and expect to read of the follies of an old man, not warned 
by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to 
beware of the like ; not cooled by almost forty years’ misery 
and disappointments, not satisfied with prosperity beyond 
expectation, not made cautious by affliction and distress 
beyond imitation. 

I had no more business to go to the East Indies than a 
man at full liberty, and having committed no crime, has to 
go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lock him 


442 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


up among the prisoners there, and starve him. Had I 
taken a small vessel from England, and went directly to the 
island ; had I loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all 
the necessaries for the plantation and for my people, took a 
patent from the governor here, to have secured my property 
in subjection only to that of England; had I carried over 
cannon and ammunition, servants and people, to plant, and 
taken possession of the place, fortified and strengthened it 
in the name of England, and increased it with people, as I 
might easily have done ; had I then settled myself there, and 
sent the ship back loaded with good rice, as I might also 
have done in six months’ time, and ordered my friends to 
have fitted her out again for our supply, — had I done this 
and stayed there myself, 1 had at least acted like a man 
of common sense ; but I was possessed with a wandering 
spirit, scorned all advantages ; I pleased myself with being 
the patron of those people I placed there, and doing for 
them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like an old pa- 
triarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been 
father of the whole family as well as of the plantation. But 
I never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any 
government or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to 
call my people subjects to any one nation more than an- 
other; nay, I never so much as gave the place a name, but 
left it as I found it, belonging to no man, and the people 
under no discipline or government but my own, who, though 
I had influence over them as father and benefactor, had 
no authority or power to act or command, one way or other, 
farther than voluntary consent moved them to comply. Yet 
even this, had I stayed there, would have done well enough ; 
but, as I rambled from them and came there no more, the 
last letters I had from any of them was by my partner’s 
means, who afterwards sent another sloop to the place, 
and who sent me word, — though I had not the letter till five 
years after it was written, — that they went on but poorly; 
were malcontent with their long stay there ; that Will Atkins 
was dead ; that five of the Spaniards were come away, and 
that though they had not been much molested by the 
savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with them ; and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


443 


that they begged of him to write to me, to think of the pro- 
mise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their 
own country again before they died. 

But I was gone a wild-goose chase incfeed ; and they that 
will have any more of me, must be content to follow me 
through a new variety of follies, hardships, and wild adven- 
tures ; wherein the justice of Providence may be duly 
observed, and we may see how easily Heaven can gorge 
us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes 
be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those 
very things which we think it would be our utmost happiness 
to be allowed in. 

Let no wise man flatter himself with the strength of his 
own judgment, as if he was able to choose any particular 
station of life for himself. Man is a short-sighted creature, 
sees but a very little way before him, and, as his passions 
are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are 
generally his worst counsellors. 

I say this with respect to the impetuous desire I had 
from a youth to wander in the world ; and how evident it 
now was that this principle was preserved in me for my 
punishment. How it came on, the manner, the circum- 
stance, and the conclusion of it, it is easy to give you his- 
torically, and with its utmost variety of particulars. But the 
secret ends of Divine power, in thus permitting us to be 
hurried down the stream of our own desires, is only to be 
understood of those who can listen to the voice of Provi- 
dence, and draw religious consequences from God’s justice 
and their own mistakes. 

Be it, I had business or no business, away I went. It is 
no time now to enlarge any farther upon the reason or 
absurdity of my own conduct, but to come to the history; 
I was embarked for the voyage, and the voyage I went. 

I should only add here, that my honest and truly pious 
clergyman left me here; a ship being ready to go -to Lisbon, 
he asked me leave to go thither, being still, as he observed, 
bound never to finish any voyage he began. How happy 
had it been for me if I had gone with him ! 

But it was too late now. All things Heaven appoints are 


444 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


best. Had I gone with him, I had never had so many 
things to be thankful for, and you had never heard of the 
second part of the travels and adventures of Robinson 
Crusoe. So I must leave here the fruitless exclaiming at 
myself, and go on with my voyage. 

From the Brazils we made directly away over the Atlantic 
sea, to the Cape de Bon Esperance, or as we call it, the Cape 
of Good Hope, and had a tolerable good voyage, our course 
generally south-east; now and then a storm, and some con- 
trary winds, but my disasters at sea were at an end. My 
future rubs and cross events were to befall me on shore; 
that it might appear the land was as well prepared to be our 
scourge as the sea, when Heaven, who directs the circum- 
stances of things, pleases to appoint it to be so. 

Our ship was on a trading voyage and had a supercargo 
on board, who was to direct all her motions after she 
arrived at the Cape ; only being limited to certain numbers 
of days for stay, by charter-party, at the several ports she 
was to go to. This was none of my business, neither did I 
meddle with it at all; my nephew, the captain, and the 
supercargo adjusting all those things between them as they 
thought fit. 

We made no stay at the Cape longer than was needful to 
take in fresh water, but made the best of our way for the 
coast of Coromandel. We were indeed informed that a 
French man-of-war of fifty guns, and two large merchant 
ships were gone for the Indies, and as I knew we were at 
war with France, I had some apprehensions of them. But 
they went their way, and we heard no more of them. 

I shall not pester my account or the reader with descrip- 
tions of places, journals of our voyage, variations of the 
compass, latitudes, meridian-distances, trade-winds, situation 
of ports, and the like ; such as almost all the histories of 
long navigation are full of, and makes the reading tiresome 
enough, ahd are perfectly unprofitable to all that read it, 
except only to those who are to go to those places them- 
selves. 

It is enough to name the ports and places which we 
touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passing from 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


445 

one to another. We touched first at the island of Madagas- 
car; where, though the people are fierce and treacherous, 
and, in particular, very well armed with lances and bows, 
which they use with inconceivable dexterity; yet we fared 
very well with them a while ; they treated us very civilly, 
and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, 
scissors, etc., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, mid- 
dling in size, but very good in flesh, which we took in partly 
for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest 
to salt for the ship’s use. 

We were obliged to stay here some time after we had fur- 
nished ourselves with provisions ; and I, that was always 
too curious to look into every nook of the world wherever I 
came, was for going on shore as fast as I could. It was on 
the east side of the island that we went on shore one even- 
ing, and the people, who by the way are very numerous, 
came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a dis- 
tance ; but as we had traded freely with them, and had been 
kindly used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when 
we saw the people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and 
stuck them up at a distance from us, which, it seems, is a 
mark in the country not only of truce and friendship, but 
when it is accepted, the other side set up three poles or 
boughs, which is a signal that they accept the truce too; but 
then this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not 
to pass between their three poles towards them, nor they to 
come past your three poles or boughs towards you ; so that 
you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all the 
space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a mar- 
ket, for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When you go 
there you must not carry your weapons with you; and if they 
come into that space, they stick up their javelins and lances, 
all at the first poles, and come on unarmed ; but if any vio- 
lence is offered them, and the truce thereby broken, away 
they run to the poles, and lay hold of their weapons, and 
then the truce is at an end. 

It happened one evening when we went on shore, that a 
greater number of their people came down than usual, but 
all were very friendly and civil, and they brought in several 




ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


446 

kinds of provisions, for which we satisfied them with such 
toys as we had; their women also brought us milk and 
roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and all was 
quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs 
of trees, and lay on shore all night. 

I knew not what was the occasion, but I was not so well 
satisfied to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat lying at an 
anchor, about a stone-cast from the land, with two men in her 
to take care of her, I made one of them come on shore, and 
getting some boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, I 
spread the sail on the bottom of the boat and laid under the 
cover of the branches of trees all night in the boat. 

About two o’clock in the morning, we heard one of our 
men make a terrible noise on the shore, calling out, for God’s 
sake, to bring the boat in, and come and help them, for they 
were all like to be murdered; at the same time I heard the 
firing of five muskets, which was the number of the guns 
they had, and that, three times over; for it seems, the na- 
tives here were not so easily frighted with guns as the sav- 
ages were in America, where I had to do with them. 

All this while I knew not what was the matter; but rous- 
ing immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat 
to be thrust in, and resolved, with three fusils we had on 
board, to land and assist our men. 

We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men were in 
too much haste, for being come to the shore, they plunged 
into the water to get to the boat with all the expedition they 
could, being pursued by between three and four hundred 
men. Our men were but nine in all, and. only five of them 
had fusils with them; the rest had, indeed, pistols and 
swords, but they were of small use to them. 

We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough, 
too, three of them being very ill wounded; and, that which 
was still worse, was, that while we stood in the boat to take 
our men in, we were in as much danger as they were in on 
shore, foi they poured their arrows in upon us so thick that 
we were fain to barricade the side of the boat up with the 
benches and two or three loose boards, which, to our great 
satisfaction, we had, by accident or Providence, in the boat. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


447 


And yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such 
exact marksmen, that, if they could have seen but the least 
part of any of us, they would have been sure of us. We 
had, by the light of the moon, a little sight of them, as they 
stood pelting us from the shore with darts and arrows; and, 
having got ready our firearms, we gave them a volley that 
we could hear, by the cries of some of them, that we had 
wounded several; however, they stood thus, in battle array, 
on the shore till break of day, which we suppose was that 
they might see the better to take their aim at us. 

In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh 
our anchor or set up our sail, because we must needs stand 
up in the boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were 
to hit a bird in a tree with small shot. We made signals of 
distress to the ship, which, though we rowed a league off, 
yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and, by 
glasses, perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired 
towards the shore, pretty well understood us ; and, weighing 
anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durst 
with the ship, and then sent another boat, with ten hands in 
her, to assist us ; but we called to them not to come too 
near, telling them what condition we were in. However, 
they stood in nearer to us ; and, one of the men, taking the 
end of a tow-line in his hand, and keeping our boat between 
him and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see him, 
swam on board us and made fast the line to the boat; upon 
which we slipped our little cable, and leaving our anchor 
behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows, we all the 
while lying close behind the barricade we had made. 

As soon as we were got from between the ship and the 
shore, that she could lay her side to the shore, she run along 
just by them, and we poured in a broadside among them, 
loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small bullets and such 
stuff, besides the great shot, which made a terrible havoc 
amongst them. 

When we were got on board and out of danger, we had 
time to examine into the occasion of this fray; and, indeed, 
our supercargo, who had been often in those parts, put me 
upon it, for, he said* he was sure the inhabitants would not 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


• 448 

have touched us after we had made a truce, if we had not 
done something to provoke them to it. At length it came 
out, viz : that an old woman who had come to sell us some 
milk, had brought it within our poles, with a young woman 
with her, who also brought some roots or herbs ; and, while 
the old woman, — whether she was mother to the young 
woman or no, they could not tell, — was selling us the milk, 
one of our men offered some rudeness to the wench that 
was with her, at which the old woman made a great noise. 
However, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried 
her out of the old woman’s sight, among the trees, it being 
almost dark. The old woman went away without her, and, 
as we suppose, made an outcry among the people she came 
from, who, upon notice, raised this great army upon us in 
three or four hours ; and it was great odds but we had been 
all destroyed. 

One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him 
just at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the 
tent they had made; the rest came off free, — all but the 
fellow who was the occasion of all the mischief, who paid 
dear enough for his black mistress, for we could not hear 
what became of him a great while. We lay upon the shore 
two days after, though the wind presented, and made signals 
for him, — made our boat sail up shore and down shore sev- 
eral leagues, but in vain. So we were obliged to give him 
over; and, if he alone had suffered by it, the loss had been 
the less. 

I could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on 
shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of him or 
them. It was the third night after the action, that I had a 
great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief 
we had done, and how the game stood on the Indian side. 
I was careful to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked 
again ; but I ought indeed, to have been sure that the men 
I went with had been under my command, before I engaged 
in a thing so hazardous and mischievous as I was brought 
into by it, without my knowledge or design. 

We took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, 
besides the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


449 


before midnight, at the same place where the Indians stood 
drawn up the evening before. I landed here, because my 
design, as I have said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted 
the field, and if they had left any marks behind them of the 
mischief we had done them ; and I thought, if we could 
surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man 
again by way of exchange. 

We landed without any noise, and divided our men into 
two bodies, whereof the boatswain commanded one, and I 
the other. We neither saw or heard anybody stir when we 
landed, and we marched up one body at a distance from the 
other to the place, but at first could see nothing, it being 
very dark ; till by-and-by, our boatswain that led the first 
party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made 
them halt awhile, for, knowing by the circumstances that 
they were at the place where the Indians had stood, they 
waited for my coming up. Here we concluded to halt till 
the moon began to rise, which we knew would be in less 
than an hour, when we could easily discern the havoc we 
had made among them. We told two-and-thirty bodies 
upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead. Some 
had an arm and some a leg shot off, and one his head. 
Those that were wounded we supposed they had carried 
away. 

When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all 
we could come at the knowledge of, I was resolved for 
going on board ; but the boatswain and his party sent me 
word that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian 
town, where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and 
asked me to go along with them; and if they could find 
them, as still they fancied they should, they did not doubt 
getting a good booty, and it might be they might find 
Thomas Jeffery there, — that was the man’s name we had 
lost. 

Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough 
what answer to have given them; for I would have com- 
manded them instantly on board, knowing it was not a 
hazard fit for us to run, who had a ship and ship-loading in 
our charge, and a voyage to make, which depended very 
is 


4 


45 ° 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


much upon the lives of the men ; but as they sent me word 
they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my com- 
pany to go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose 
up (for I was sitting on the ground), in order to go to the 
boat. One or two of the men began to importune me to go, 
and when I refused positively, began to grumble, and say 
they were not under my command, and they would go. 
“Come Jack,” said one of the men, “will you go with me? 
I’ll go for one.” Jack said he would, and another followed, 
and then another. And, in a word, they all left me but one, 
whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left in the boat; so the 
supercargo and I, with the third man, went back to the boat, 
where we told them we would stay for them, and take care 
to take in as many of them as should be left ; for I told 
them it was a mad thing they were going about, and sup- 
posed most of them would run the fate of Thomas Jeffery. 

They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they 
would come off again, and they would *take care, etc. So 
away they went. I entreated them to consider the ship and 
voyage, that their lives were not their own, and that they 
were entrusted with the voyage in some measure ; that if 
they miscarried the ship might be lost for want of their 
help, and that they could not answer it to God or man. I 
said a great deal more to them on that head, but I might as 
well have talked to the main-mast of the ship; they were 
mad upon their journey, only they gave me good words and 
begged I would not be angry; that they would be very 
cautious, and they did not doubt but they would be back 
again in about an hour at farthest; for the Indian town, they 
said, was not above half a mile off, though they found it 
above two miles before they got to it. 

Well, they all went away as above, and though the attempt 
was desperate, and such as none but mad men would have 
gone about, yet to give them their due, they went about it 
as warily as boldly. They were gallantly armed, that is 
true ; for they had every man a fusil or musket, a bayonet, 
and every man a pistol ; some of them had broad cutlasses, 
some of them hangers, and the boatswain and two more had 
pole-axes. Besides all which, they had among them thirteen 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 451 

hand-grenades. Bolder fellows, and better provided, never 
went about any wicked work in the world. 

When they went out, their chief design was plunder, and 
they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there ; but a cir- 
cumstance which none of them were aware of, set them on 
fire with revenge, and made devils of them all. When they 
came to the few Indian houses which they thought had been 
the town, which was not above half a mile off, they were 
under a great disappointment, for there were not above 
twelve or thirteen houses ; and where the town was, or how 
big, they knew not. They consulted, therefore, what to do, 
and were some time before they could resolve, for if they 
fell upon these they must cut all their throats, and it was 
ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the 
night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he 
would run away, and raise all the town, so they should have 
a whole army upon them. Again, on the other hand, if 
they went away a*nd left those untouched (for the people 
were all asleep), they could not tell which way to look for 
the town, 

However, the last was the best advice ; so they resolved 
to leave them and look for the town as well as they could. 
They went on a little way and found a cow tied to a tree; 
this they presently concluded would be a good guide to 
them, for they said the cow certainly belonged to the town 
before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied 
her they should see which way she went If she went back, 
they had nothing to say to her, but if she went forward, they 
had nothing to do but to follow her. So they cut the cord, 
which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went on 
before them ; in a word, the cow led them directly to the 
town, which, as they reported, consisted of above two hun- 
dred houses or huts, and in some of these they found 
several families living together. 

Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as 
sleep and a country that had never seen an enemy of that 
kind could make them; and first, they called another coun- 
cil, to consider what they had to do ; and, in a word, they 
resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and to set 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


45 2 

three houses on fire in three parts of the town, and as the 
men came out, to seize them and bind them ; if any resisted, 
they need not be asked what to do then, and so to search the 
rest of the houses for plunder. But they resolved to march 
silently, first, through the town, and see what dimensions it 
was of, and if they might venture upon it or no. 

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would 
venture upon them ; but while they were animating one an- 
other to the work, three of them, that were a little before the 
rest, called out aloud to them and told them they had found 
Tom Jeffery. They all ran up to the place, and so it was, 
indeed; for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up, 
naked, by one arm, and his throat cut; there was an Indian 
house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seven- 
teen of the principal Indians who had been concerned in the 
fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with 
our shot ; and our men found they were awake, and talking 
one to another in that house, but knew not their number. 

The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged 
them, as before, that they swore to one another that they 
would be revenged, and that not an Indian who came into 
their hands should have quarter ; and to work they went 
immediately, and yet not so madly as, by the rage and fury 
they were in, might be expected. Their first care was to get 
something that would soon take fire ; but, after a little 
search, they found that would be to no purpose, for most of 
the houses were low and thatched with flags or rushes, of 
which the country is full; so they presently made some wild 
fire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms of 
their hands, and in a quarter of an hour they set the town 
on fire in four or five places, and particularly that house 
where the Indians were not gone to bed. As soon as the 
fire began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures began to rush 
out to save their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt, 
and especially at the door, where they drove them back, the 
boatswain himself killing one or two with his pole-axe. The 
house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, 
but called for a hand-grenade, and threw it among them, 
which at first frighted them, but when it burst, made such 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 453 

havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous 
manner. 

In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part 
of the house were killed or hurt with the grenade, except 
two or three more who pressed to the door, which the boat- 
swain and two more kept with their bayonets in the muzzles 
of their pieces, and dispatched all who came that way. But 
there was another apartment in the house, where the prince, 
or king, or whatever he was, and several others were, and 
these they kept in till the house, which was, by this time, all 
of a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered 
or burnt together. 

All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not 
waken the people faster than they could master them ; but 
the fire began to waken them fast enough, and our fellows 
were glad to keep a little together in bodies, for the fire 
grew so raging, all the houses being made of light com- 
bustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between 
them, and their business was to follow the fire, for the surer 
execution. As fast as the fire either forced the people out 
of their houses, which were burning, or frighted them out of 
others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them 
on the head, still calling or hallooing to one another to 
remember Tom Jeffery. 

While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, 
and especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it 
being night, seemed to be just by me. 

My nephew, the captain, who was roused by his men, too, 
seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the 
matter was, or what danger I was in, — especially hearing 
the guns, too ; for by this time they began to use their fire- 
arms. A thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning 
me and the supercargo, — what should become of us; and, 
at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet, not 
knowing what exigency we might be in, he took another 
boat, and with thirteen men and himself, came on shore 
to me. 

He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the 
boat with no more than two men ; and though he was glad 


454 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with 
us to know what was doing : for the noise continued, and 
the flame increased. In short, it was next to an impossibil- 
ity for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity to 
know what had happened, or their concern for the safety of 
the men. In a word, the captain told me he would go and 
help his men, let what would come. I argued with him as 
I did before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger 
of the voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, etc., 
and told him I would go, and the two men, and only see if 
we could at a distance learn what was like to be the event, 
and come back and tell him. 

It was all one to talk to my nephew as it was to talk to 
the rest before ; he would go, he said, and he only wished he 
had left but ten men in the ship; for he could not think of 
having his men lost for want of help ; he had rather lose the 
ship, the voyage, and his life and all; and away went he. 

In a word, I was no more able to stay behind now, than I 
was to persuade them not to go ; so, in short, the captain or- 
dered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve 
men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor, and that when 
they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and six 
more come after us ; so that he left only sixteen men in the 
ship; for the whole ship’s company consisted of sixty-five 
men, whereof two were lost in the last quarrel, which brought 
this mischief on. 

Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of 
the ground we trod on ; and being guided by the fire, we 
kept no path, but went directly to the place of the flame. If 
the noise of the guns was surprising to us before, the cries 
of the poor people were now of quite another nature, and 
filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at the 
sacking a city or at the taking a town by storm. I had 
heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and 
killing man, woman and child; and I had read of Count 
Tilly, sacking of the city of Magdeburg, and cutting the 
throats of 22,000 of all sexes. But I never had an idea of 
the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the 
horror which was upon our minds at hearing it. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 455 

However, we went on, and at length came to the town, 
though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. 
The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or 
house, or rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; 
and just before it, plain now to be seen by the light of the 
fire, lay four men and three women killed; and as we 
thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In 
short, there were such instances of a rage altogether barbar- 
ous, and of a fury something beyond what was human, that 
we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it; or if 
they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be 
every one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was 
not all, we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went 
on just as the fire went on ; so that we were in the utmost 
confusion. We advanced a little way further, and beheld, to 
our astonishment, three women naked, and crying in a most 
dreadful manner, came flying, as if they had indeed had 
wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in 
the same terror and consternation, with three of our English 
butchers, for I can call them no better, in their rear, who, 
when they could not overtake them, fired in among them ; 
and one that was killed by their shot, fell down in our sight. 
When the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies, and 
that we would murder them as well as those that pursued 
them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the 
women ; and two of them fell down as if already dead with 
the fright. 

My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood run chill in 
my veins, when I saw this; and I believe, had the three 
English sailors that pursued them come on, I had made our 
men kill them all. However, we took some ways to let the 
poor flying creatures know that-we would not hurt them, and 
immediately they came up to us, and, kneeling down, with 
their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to save 
them, which we let them know we would; whereupon, they 
crept altogether in a huddle close behind us, as for protec- 
tion. I left my men drawn up together, and charged them 
to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of our people, 
and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


45 6 

intended to do ; and in a word, to command them off; assur- 
ing them, that if they stayed till daylight, they would have 
an hundred thousand men about their ears. I said I left 
them, and went among those flying people, taking only two 
of our men with me; and there was indeed a piteous specta- 
cle among them. Some of them had their feet terribly burnt 
with trampling and running through the fire, others their 
hands burnt; one of the women had fallen down in the fire, 
and was very much burnt before she could get out again; 
and two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and 
thighs from our men pursuing; and another was shot 
through the body, and died while I was there. 

I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this 
was, but I could not understand one word they said; 
though by signs I perceived that some of them knew not 
what was the occasion themselves. I was so terrified in my 
thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that I could not stay 
there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to go 
into the middle of the town through the fire, or whatever 
might be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it 
would. Accordingly, as soon as I came back to my men, I 
told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow 
me, when, in the very moment, came four of our men, with 
the boatswain at their head, roving over the heaps of bodies 
they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they 
wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed 
to them as loud as they could halloo, and with much ado 
one of them made them hear, so that they knew who we 
were, and came up to us. 

As goon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like 
a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help 
come, and without bearing to hear me, “ Captain,” said he, 
‘‘noble captain, I am gjad you are come! We have not 
half done yet, villainous, hell-hound dogs ! I’ll kill as many 
of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head. We have 
sworn to spare none of them, we’ll rout out the very nation 
of them from the earth.” And thus he ran on, out of breath, 
too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a 
word. 



ROBINSON CRUSOE’S SEAMEN 


VOWING 


REVENGE. 


Page 457 




✓ 



ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


457 

At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little, 
“ Barbarous dog,” said I, “what are you doing? I won’t 
have one creature touched more, upon pain of death. I 
charge you upon your life, to stop your hands, and stand 
still here, or you are a dead man this minute.” 

“ Why, sir,” said he, “do you know what you do, or what 
they have done ? If you want a reason for what we have 
done come hither.” And with that he showed me the poor 
fellow hanging, with his throat cut. 

I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time 
would have been forward enough ; but I thought they had 
carried their rage too far, and I thought of Jacob’s words to 
his sons, Simeon and Levi, “ Cursed be their anger, for it 
was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel.” But I had 
now a new task upon my hands; for when the men I carried 
with me saw the sight, as I had done, I had as much to do 
to restrain them, as I should have had with the others. 
Nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in 
their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the 
men being overpowered ; for, as to the people, he thought 
not one of them ought to live; for they had all glutted 
themselves with the murder of the poor man, and that they 
ought to be used like murderers. Upon these words, away 
run eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew, to 
complete their bloody work ; and I, seeing it quite out of 
my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; 
for I could not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise 
and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands. 

I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo 
and two men ; and with these I walked back to the boats. 
It was a very great piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture 
back, as it were, alone ; for, as it began now to be almost 
day, and the alarm had run over the country, there stood 
about forty men, armed with lances and bows, at the little 
place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood mentioned 
before; but, by accident, I missed the place and came 
directly to the seaside, and, by the time I got to the seaside, it 
was broad day. Immediately I took the pinnace and went 
aboard, and sent her back to assist the men. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


45 8 

I observed, about the time that I came to the boat-side, 
that the fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated ; but 
in about half an hour after I got on board, I heard a volley 
of our men’s fire-arms, and saw a great smoke. This, as I 
understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the men, 
who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way, — of 
whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those 
houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or 
children. 

By that time the men got to the shore again with the 
pinnace, our men began to appear ; they came dropping in, 
some and some, not in two bodies and in form, as they went, 
but all in heaps, straggling here and there in such a manner 
that a small force of resolute men might have cut them 
all off. 

But the dread of them was upon the whole country ; and 
the men were amazed and surprised, and so frighted that I 
believe that a hundred of them would have fled at the sight 
of but five of our men. Nor in all this terrible action was 
there a man who made any considerable defense, they were 
so surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden 
attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which 
way to turn themselves, — for if they fled one way they 
were met by one party ; if back again, by another ; so that 
they were everywhere knocked down. Nor did any of our 
men receive the least hurt, — except one, who strained 
his foot; and another had one of his hands very much 
burnt. 

I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and, 
indeed, with all the men, in my mind, but with him in par- 
ticular, as well for his acting so out of his duty, as com- 
mander of the ship and having the charge of the voyage 
upon him, as in his prompting rather than cooling the rage 
of his men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise. My nephew 
answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he 
saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered 
in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not master of 
himself, neither could he govern his passions. He owned 
he should not have done so, as he was commander of the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


459 

ship; but, as he was a man, and nature moved him, he could 
not bear it. As for the rest of the men, they were not sub- 
ject to me at all, and they knew it well enough, so they took 
no notice of my dislike. 

The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of 
it. Our men differed in the account of the number they 
killed, — some said one thing, some another, — but, according 
to the best of their accounts put altogether, they killed or 
destroyed about one hundred and fifty people, — men, 
women and children, and left not a house standing in the 
town. 

As for the poor fellow, Tom Jeffery, as he was quite dead 
(for his throat was so cut that his head was half off), it would 
do him no service to bring him away, so they left him where 
they found him, — only took him down from the tree, where 
he was hanged by one hand. 

However just our men thought this action, I was against 
them in it, and I always, after that time, told them God 
would blast the voyage, for I looked upon all the blood they 
shed that night to be murder in them ; for, though it is true 
that they had killed Tom Jeffery, yet it was as true that 
Jeffery was the aggressor, — had broken the truce, and had 
violated or debauched a young woman of theirs who came 
down to them innocently, and on the faith of their public 
capitulation. 

The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were 
afterwards on board. He said, it is true, that we seemed to 
break the truce, but really had not, and that the war was 
begun the night before by the natives themselves, who had 
shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just 
provocation ; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them 
now, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice 
upon them in an extraordinary manner; that, though the 
poor man had taken a little liberty with a wench, he ought 
not to have been murdered, and that in such a villainous 
manner ; and that they did nothing but what was just, and 
what the laws of God allowed to be done to murderers. 

One would think this should have been enough to have 
warned us against going on shore among heathens and bar- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


460 

barians, but it is impossible to make mankind wise, but 
through their own experience; and their experience seems 
to be always of most use to them when it is dearest bought. 

We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence 
to the coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but 
the chief of the supercargo’s design lay at the Bay of 
Bengal, where, if he missed of his business outward-bound, 
he was to go up to China, and return to the coast as he came 
home. 

The first disaster that befell us was in the Gulf of Persia, 
where five of our men, venturing on shore on the Arabian 
side of the gulf, were surrounded by the Arabians, and 
either all killed or carried away into slavery; the rest of the 
boat’s crew were not able to rescue them, and had but just 
time to get off their boat. I began to upbraid them with the 
just retribution of Heaven in this case ; but the boatswain 
very warmly told me he thought I went farther in my cen- 
sures than I could show any warrant for in Scripture, and 
referred me to Luke xiii., 4, where our Saviour intimates that 
“those men on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were not 
sinners above all the Galileans.” But that which, indeed, 
put me to silence in the case, was, that not one of these five 
men who were now lost were of the number of those who 
went on shore to the Massacre of Madagascar (so I always 
called it, though our men could not bear the word “massa- 
cre ” with any patience); and, indeed, this last circumstance, 
as I have said, put me to silence for the present. 

But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had 
worse consequences than I expected; and the boatswain, 
who had been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me 
one time, and told me he found that I continually brought 
that affair upon the stage; that I made unjust reflections 
upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and 
himself in particular; that, as I was but a passenger, and 
had no command in the ship or concern in the voyage, they 
were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know but I 
might have some ill design in my head, and, perhaps, to call 
them to account for it when they came to England ; and that, 
therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


461 

also not to concern myself any further with him or any of 
his affairs, he would leave the ship, for he did not think it 
was safe to sail with me among them. 

I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then 
told him that I did confess I had all along opposed the Mas- 
sacre of Madagascar, for such I would always call it: and 
that I had, on all occasions, spoken my mind freely about it, 
though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as to 
my having no command in the ship, that was true ; nor did 
I exercise any authority, — only took my liberty of speaking 
my mind in things which publicly concerned us all;, and what 
concern I had in the voyage was none of his business; that 
I was a considerable owner of the ship, and, in that claim, I 
conceived I had a right to speak even farther than I had yet 
done, and would not be accountable to him or any one else, 
and begun to be a little warm with him. He made but little 
reply to me at that time, and I thought that affair had been 
over. We were, at this time, in the road at Bengal, and 
being willing to see the place, I went on shore with the 
supercargo, in the ship’s boat, to divert myself, and towards 
evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men 
came to me and told me he would not have me trouble my- 
self to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to 
carry me on board any more. Any one may guess what a 
surprise I was in at so insolent a message ; and I asked the 
man who bade him deliver that errand to me. He told me 
the cockswain. I said no more to the fellow, but bade him 
let them know he had delivered his message, and that I had 
given him no answer to it. 

I immediately went and found out the supercargo, and 
told him the story, adding what I presently foresaw, viz: 
that there w r ould certainly be a mutiny in the ship, and 
entreated him to go immediately on board the ship in an 
Indian boat, and acquaint the captain of it. But I might 
have spared this intelligence, for before I had spoken to 
him on shore, the matter was effected on board. The 
boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and, in a word, all the 
inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat, came 
up to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the cap- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


462 

tain; and there the boatswain, making a long harangue, for 
the fellow talked very well, and repeating all he had said to 
me, told the captain in a few words, that as I was now gone 
peaceably on shore, they were loth to use any violence with 
me, which, if I had not gone on shore, they would otherwise 
have done to oblige me to have gone. They therefore 
thought fit to tell him that as they shipped themselves to 
serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it 
well and faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or 
the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the 
ship, and sail no farther with him; and at that word 4 all,” he 
turned his face about towards the main-mast, which was, it 
seems, the signal agreed on between them; at which, all the 
seamen being got together, they cried out, 44 One and all, 
one and all ! ” 

My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit and of great 
presence of mind; and though he was surprised, you may 
be sure, at the thing, yet he told them calmly that he would 
consider of the thing, but that he could do nothing in it till 
he had spoken to me about it. He used some arpiments 
with them to show them the unreasonableness and injustice 
of the thing; but it was all in vain; they swore and shook 
hands round before his face, that they would all go on 
shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to 
come any more on board the ship. 

This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obliga 
tion to me, and did not know how I might take it; so he 
began to talk cavalierly to them, told them that I was a very 
considerable owner of the ship, and that in justice he could 
not put me out of my own house. That this was next door 
to serving me as the famous pirate Kidd had done, who 
made the mutiny in a ship, set the captain on shore in an 
uninhabited island, and run away with the ship; that let 
them go into what ship they would, if ever they came to 
England again, it would cost them dear; that the ship was 
mine, and that he could not put me out of it; and that he 
would rather lose the ship and the voyage too, than diso- 
blige me so much, so they might do as they pleased. How- 
ever, he would go on shore, and talk with me on shore, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 463 

invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they 
might accommodate the matter with me. 

But they all rejected the proposal, and said they would 
have nothing to do with me any more, neither on board or 
on shore ; and if I came on board they would all go on 
shore. “Well,” said the captain, “if you are all of this 
mind let me go on shore and talk with him ; so away he 
came to me with this account, a little after the message had 
been brought to me from the cockswain. 

I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess ; for I 
was not without apprehensions that they would confine him 
by violence, set sail, and run away with the ship, and then I 
had been stripped naked in a remote country, and nothing to 
help myself. In short, I had been in a worse case than 
when I was all alone in the island. 

But they had not come that length, it seems, to my great 
satisfaction ; and when my nephew told me what they had 
said to him, and how they had sworn, and shook hands, that 
they would one and all leave the ship, if I was suffered to 
come on board, I told him he should not be concerned at it 
at all, for I would stay on shore. I only desired he would 
take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, 
and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my 
way to England as well as I could. 

This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew, but there 
was no way to help it but to comply with it. So, in short, 
he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that 
his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent for 
his goods from on board the ship ; so that matter was over 
in a very few hours, the men returned to their duty, and I 
began to consider what course I should steer. 

I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I 
think I may call it; for I was near three thousand leagues 
by sea farther off from England than I was at my island; 
only it is true, I - might travel here by land over the Great 
Mogul’s country to Surat, might go from thence to Basora 
by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and from thence might take 
the way of caravans over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo 
and Scanderoon ; from thence by sea again to Italy, and so 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


464 

overland into France; and this put together might be at 
least a full diameter of the globe; but if it were to be 
measured, I supppose it would appear to be a great deal 
more. 

I had another way before me, which was to wait for some 
English ships, which were coming to Bengal, from Achin on 
the island of Sumatra, and get passage on board them for 
England. But as I came hither without any concern with 
the English East-India Company, so it would be difficult to 
go from hence without their license, unless with great favor 
of the captains of the ships, or of the company’s factors, and 
to both I was an utter stranger. 

Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contraries, 
to see the ship sail without me, a treatment I think a man in 
my circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates 
running away with a ship, and setting those that would not 
agree with their villainy on shore. Indeed this was next 
door to it, both ways. However, my nephew left me two 
servants, or rather one companion and one servant; the 
first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with 
me, and the other was his own servant. I took me also a good 
lodging in the house of an Englishwoman, where several 
merchants lodged; some French, two Italians, or rather 
Jews, and one Englishman. Here I was handsomely enough 
entertained; and, that I might not be said to run rashly upon 
anything, I stayed here above nine months, considering 
what course to take and how to manage myself. I had some 
English goods with me of value, and a considerable sum of 
money, my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces cf 
eight, and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion, that 
I might not be straitened whatever might happen. 

I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage, too ; 
and, as I originally intended, I bought here some very good 
diamonds, which, of all other things, was the most proper 
for me in my present circumstances, because I might always 
carry my whole estate about me. 

After a long stay here, and many proposals made for my 
return to England, but none falling out to my mind, the 
English merchant who lodged with me, and with whom I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


465 

had contracted an intimate acquaintance, came to me one 
morning. “ Countryman,” said he, “ I have a project to 
communicate to you, which, as it suits with my thoughts, 
may, for aught I know, suit with yours also, when you shall 
have thoroughly considered it. 

“ Here we are posted,” said he, “ you by accident, and I 
by my own choice, in a part of the world very remote from 
our own country; but it is in a country, where, by us who 
understand trade and business, a great deal of money is to 
be got. If you will put a thousand pounds to my thousand 
pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our 
minds; you shall be captain, I’ll be merchant, and we will 
go a trading voyage to China; for what should we stand still 
for? The whole world is in motion, rolling round and 
round; all the creatures of God, heavenly bodies and 
earthly, are busy and diligent; why should we be idle? 
There are no drones in the world but men ; why should we 
be of that number ?” 

I liked his proposal very well, and the more because it 
seemed to be expressed with so much good will, and in so 
friendly a manner. I will not say but that I might by my 
loose and unhinged circumstances be the fitter to embrace 
a proposal for trade, or indeed for anything else; whereas, 
otherwise, trade was none of my element. However, I 
might perhaps say with some truth, that if trade was not my 
element, rambling was, and no proposal for seeing any part 
of the world which I never had seen before, could possibly 
come amiss to me. 

It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to 
our minds ; and when we had got a vessel it was not easy 
to get English sailors, that is to say, so many as were neces- 
sary to govern the voyage, and manage the sailors which 
we should pick up there. After some time we got a mate, 
a boatswain, and a gunner, English ; a Dutch carpenter, and 
three Portuguese fore-mast men ; with these we found we 
could do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as they 
were, to make up. 

There are many travelers who have wrote the history of 
their voyages and travels this way, so that it would be very 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


466 

little diversion to anybody to give a long account of the 
places we went to and the people who inhabit there ; those 
things I leave to others, and refer the reader to those jour- 
nals and travels of Englishmen, of which many, I find, are 
published, and more promised every day. It is enough to 
me to tell you that I made this voyage to Achin, in the island 
of Sumatra, and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged 
some of our wares for opium and some arrack; the first, a 
commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, 
and which at that time was very much wanted there. In a 
word, we went up to Suskan, made a very great voyage, 
were eight months out, and returned to Bengal, and I was 
very well satisfied with my adventure. I observe that our 
people in England often admire how the officers which the 
company send into India, and the merchants which gene- 
rally stay there, get such very great estates as they do, and 
sometimes come home worth £ 60,000 or £y 0,000 at a time. 

But it is no wonder, or at least we shall see so much far- 
ther into it, when we consider the innumerable ports and 
places where they have a free commerce, that it will then be 
no wonder; and much less it will be so when we consider, 
at all those places and ports where the English ships come, 
there is so much and such constant demand for the growth 
of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the 
returns, as well as a market abroad, for the goods carried 
out. 

In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much 
money by the first adventure, and such an insight into the 
method of getting more, that had I been twenty years 
younger, I should have been tempted to have stayed here 
and sought no farther for making my fortune. But what was 
all this to a man on the wrong side of three-score, that was 
rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a rest- 
less desire of seeing the world, than a covetous desire of 
gettingin it? and, indeed, I think it is with great justice that 
I now call it a restless desire, for it was so. When I was 
at home, I was restless to go abroad ; and now I was abroad, 
I was restless to be at home, — I say, what gain was this to 
me ? I was rich enough, nor had I any uneasy desires 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


467 

about getting more money ; and therefore the profits of the 
voyage to me were things of no great force for the prompt- 
ing me forward to further undertakings ; and I thought that 
by this voyage I had made no progress at all, because I was 
come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence I 
came, as to a home ; whereas my eye, which, like that which 
Solomon speaks of, “ was never satisfied with seeing,” was 
still more desirous of wandering and seeing. I was come 
into a part of the world which I was never in before, and 
that part in particular which I had heard much of, and was 
resolved to see as much of as I could ; and then I thought 
I might say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing. 

But my fellow traveler and I had different notions. I do 
not name this, to insist upon my own ; for I acknowledge 
his were the most just and the most suited to the end of a 
merchant’s life, who, when he is abroad upon adventures, 
’tis his wisdom to stick to that as the best thing for him, 
which he is like to get the most money by. My new friend 
kept himself to the nature of the thing, and would have 
been content to have gone, like a carrier’s horse, always to 
the same inn, backward and forward, provided he could, as 
he called it, find his account in it. On the other hand, 
mine was the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that never 
cares to see a thing twice over. 

But this was not all. I had a kind of impatience upon 
me to be nearer home ; and yet the most unsettled resolu- 
tion imaginable which way to go. In the interval of these 
consultations, my friend, who was always upon the search 
for business, proposed another voyage to me among the 
Spice Islands, and to bring home a loading of cloves from 
the ‘Manillas, or thereabouts, places where, indeed, the 
Dutch do trade, but islands belonging partly to the Span- 
iards ; though we went not so far, but to some other, where 
they have not the whole power, as they have at Batavia, 
Ceylon, etc. We were not long in preparing for this 
voyage ; the chief difficulty was in bringing me to come 
into it. However, nothing else offering, and finding that 
really stirring about and trading, the profit being so great, 
and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure in it and more 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


468 

satisfaction to the mincl than sitting still, which to me 
especially was the unhappiest part of life. I resolved on 
this voyage, too, which we made very successfully, touching 
at Borneo, and several islands whose names I do not 
remember, and came home in about five months. We sold 
our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs, to 
the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulf; 
and making near five of one, we really got a great deal of 
money. 

My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me. 
“Well, now,” said he, with a sort of agreeable insult upon 
my indolent temper, “Is not this better than walking about 
here, like a man of nothing to do, and spending our time in 
staring at the nonsense and ignorance of the pagans ? ’* 
“Why, truly,” said I, “my friend, I think it is; and I begin 
to be a convert to the principles of merchandising. But I 
must tell you,” said I, “ by the way, you do not know what 
I am a doing; for if once I conquer my backwardness, and 
embark heartily, as old as I am, I shall harass you up and 
down the world till I tire you ; for I shall pursue it so 
eagerly I shall never let you lie still.” 

But to be short with my speculations, a little while after 
this, there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia ; she was a 
coaster, not an European trader, and of about two hundred 
tons burden. The men, as they pretended, having been so 
sickly that the captain had not men enough to go to sea 
with, he lay by at Bengal, and having, it seems, got money 
enough, or being willing for other reasons to go to Europe, 
he gave public notice that he would sell his ship. This 
came to my ears before my new partner heard of it, and I 
had a great mind to buy it, so I went home to him and told 
of it. He considered awhile, for he was no rash man 
neither; but, musing some time, he replied, “She is a little 
too big; but, however, we will have her. Accordingly we 
bought the ship, and, agreeing with the master, we paid for 
her and took possession. When we had done so, we re- 
solved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them with 
those we had, for the pursuing our business ; but, on a sud- 
den, they having received not their wages, but their share of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


469 

the money, not one of them was to be found. We enquired 
much about them, and at length were told that they were all 
gone together by land to Agra, the great city of the Mogul’s 
residence ; and from thence were to travel to Surat, and so 
by sea to the Gulf of Persia. 

Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while as that 
I missed the opportunity of going with them; for such a 
ramble, I thought, and in such company as would both have 
guarded me and diverted me would have suited mightily 
with my great design, and I should both have seen the world 
and gone homewards, too ; but I was much better satisfied a 
few days after, when I came to know what sort of fellows 
they were ; for, in short, their history was, that this man they 
called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; 
that they had been a trading voyage, in which they were 
attacked on shore by some of the Malayans, who had killed 
the captain and three of his men; and that, after the captain 
was killed, these men — eleven in number — had resolved to 
run away with the ship, which they did, and brought her in 
at the Bay of Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on 
shore, of whom we shall hear further. 

Well, let them come by the ship how they would, we came 
honestly enough by her, as we thought; though we did not, 
I confess, examine into things so exactly as we ought, for 
we never enquired anything of the seamen, who, if we had 
examined, would certainly have faltered in their account, 
contradicted one another, and perhaps contradicted them- 
selves, — or, one how or other, we should have seen reason to 
have suspected them. But the man showed us a bill of sale 
of the ship to one Emanuel Clostershoven, or some such 
name, — for I suppose it was all a forgery, and called 
himself by that name, and we could not contradict him; 
and being, withal, a little too unwary, — or, at least, having 
no suspicion of the thing, we went through with our 
bargain. 

We picked up some more English seamen here after this, 
and some Dutch ; and now we resolved for a second voyaye 
to the south-east, for cloves, etc., — that is to say, among the 
Philippine and Molucca Isles. And, in short, not to fill 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


47 ° 

this part of my story with trifles, when what is yet to come 
is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in this 
country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, 
and with very good success; and was now the last year 
with my new partner, going in the ship above-mentioned 
on a voyage to China, but designing first to Siam to buy 
rice. 

In this voyage, being, by contrary winds, obliged to beat 
up and down a great while in the Straits of Malacca, and 
among the islands, we were no sooner got clear of those 
difficult seas but we found our ship had sprung a leak, and 
we were not able, by all our industry, to find it out where it 
was. This forced us to make for some port; and my part- 
ner, who knew the country better than I did, directed the 
captain to put into the river of Cambodia, — for I had made 
the English mate, one Mr. Thompson, captain, not being 
willing to take the charge of two ships upon myself. This 
river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which 
goes up to Siam. 

While we were here, and going often on shore for refresh- 
ment, there came to me one day an Englishman, and he 
was, it seems, a gunner’s mate on board an English East- 
India ship, which rode in the same river up at or near the 
city of Cambodia. What brought him hither we know not; 
but he came up to me, and speaking in English, “Sir,” said 
he, “you are a stranger to me, and I to you, but I have 
something to tell you that very nearly concerns you.” 

I looked steadily at him a good while, and thought at first 
I had known him, but I did not. “ If it very nearly concerns 
me,” said I, “and not yourself, what moves you to tell it 
me?” “I am moved,” said he, “by the imminent danger 
you are in, and for aught I see, you have no knowledge of 
it.” “I know no danger I am in,” said I, “but that my ship 
is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I purpose to lay her 
aground to-morrow, to see if I can find it.” “ But sir,” said 
he, “leaky, or not leaky, find it, or not find it, you will be 
wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you 
hear what I have to say to you. Do you know, sir, ’ said 
he, “ the town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


471 


river? And there are two large English ships about five 
leagues on this side, and three Dutch.” “Well,” said I, 
“and what is that to me?” “Why, sir,” said he, “is it 
for a man that is upon such adventures as you are upon 
to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there 
are there, and whether he is able to deal with them? I 
suppose you do not think you are a match for them?” I 
was amused very much at his discourse, but not amazed at 
it, for I could not conceive what he meant. I turned short 
upon him, and said, “ Sir, I wish you would explain yourself. 
I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of any com- 
pany of ships, or Dutch ships. I am no interloper, what can 
they have to say to me ? ” 

He looked like a man half angry, half pleased, and pausing 
awhile, but smiling, “ Well, sir,” said he, “ if you think your- 
self secure, you must take your chance. I am sorry your 
fate should blind you against good advice ; but assure your- 
self, if you do not put to sea immediately you will the very 
next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men, and per- 
haps if you are taken, you’ll be hanged for a pirate, and the 
particulars be examined afterwards. I thought sir,” added 
he, “ I should have met with a better reception than this, for 
doing you a piece of service of such importance.” “ I can 
never be ungrateful,” said I, “for any service, or to any man 
that offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehen- 
sion,” said I, “what they should have such design upon me 
for. However, since you say there is no time to be lost, and 
that there is some villainous design in hand against me, I’ll 
go on board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my 
men can stop the leak, or if we can swim without stopping 
it. But sir,” said I “shall I go away ignorant of the reason 
of all this ? Can you give me no further light into it? ” 

“ I can tell you but part of the story, sir,” said he, “but I 
have a Dutch seaman here with me, and I believe I could 
’persuade him to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time 
for it. But the short of the story is this, the first part of 
which, I suppose, you know well enough, viz: that you was 
with this ship at Sumatra ; that there your captain was mur- 
dered by the Malayans, with three of his men, and that you 


47 2 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


or some of those who were on board with you ran away with 
the ship, and are since turned pirates. This is the sum of 
the story, and you will be all seized as pirates, I can assure 
you, and executed, with very little ceremony ; for ,you know, 
merchant ships show but little law to pirates, if they get ’em 
into their power.” 

“ Now you speak plain English,” said I, “and I thank you 5 
and though I know nothing that we have done, like what you 
talk of, but am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship ; 
yet, seeing such work is a-doing as you say, and that you 
seem to mean honestly, I’ll be upon my guard.” “ Nay, sir,” 
said he, “do not talk of being upon your guard; the best 
defense is, to be out of the danger ; if you have any regard 
to your life and the lives of all your men, put out to sea 
without fail at high-water ; and as you have a whole tide be- 
fore you, you will be gone too far out before they can come 
down, for they come away at high-water; and as they have 
twenty miles to come, you get near two hours_ of them, by 
the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the 
way. Besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they 
will not venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it 
blows.” 

“Well,” said I, “you have been very kind in this, what 
shall I do for you, to make you amends ? ” “ Sir,” said he, 

“you may not be so willing to make me any amends, be- 
cause you may not be convinced of the truth of it. I’ll 
make an offer to you. I have nineteen months pay due to 

me on board the ship , which I came out of England 

in, and the Dutchman that is with me has seven months 
pay due to him. If you will make good our pay to us, we 
will go along with you ; and if you find no more in it, we 
will desire no more; but if we do convince you that we have 
saved your lives, and the ship, and the lives of all the men 
in her, we will leave the rest to you.” 

I consented to this readily, and went immediately on 
board, and the two men with me. As soon as I came to the 
ship’s side, my partner, who was on board, came out on the 
quarter-deck, and called to me with a great deal of joy, “ O 
ho! O ho! We have stopped the leak! We have stopped 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


473 


the leak!” “ Say you so,” said I “thank God! but weigh 
the anchor immediately.” “ Weigh ! ” said he, “ what do 
you mean by that, what is the matter? ” said he. “ Ask no 
questions,” said I, “but all hands to work, and weigh, with- 
out losing a minute.” He was surprised ; but, however, he 
called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor 
to be got up ; and though the tide was not quite done, yet 
a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea. Then I 
called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; 
and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it. 
But as it -took us up a great deal of time, so, before we had 
done, a seaman comes to the cabin door, and calls out to 
us, that the captain bade him tell us we were chased. 
“Chased,” said I, “by whom, and by what?” “By five 
sloops, or boats,” says the fellow, “full of men.” “Very 
well,” said I, “then it is apparent there is something in it.” 
In the next place I ordered all our men to be called up, and 
told them that there was a design to seize the ship, and to 
take us for pirates ; and asked them if they would stand by 
us, and by one another? The men answered cheerfully, 
that one and all, they would live and die with us. Then I 
asked the captain what way he thought best for us to man- 
age the fight with them; for resist them I was resolved we 
would, and that, to the last drop. He said readily, that the 
way was to keep them off with our great shot as long as we 
could, and then to fire at them with our small arms as long 
as we could ; but, when neither of these would do any 
longer, we should retire to our close quarters ; perhaps they 
had not materials to break open our bulk-heads or get in 
upon us. 

The gunner had, in the meantime, order to bring two 
guns to bear fore and aft out of the steerage, to clear the 
deck, and load them with musket bullets, and small pieces 
of old iron, and what next came to hand ; and thus, we 
made ready for fight. But all this while, we kept out to 
sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a dis- 
tance, being five large long-boats, following us with all the 
sail they could make. 

Two of those boats, which by our glasses we could see 


474 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


were English, out-sailed the rest, and were near too leagues 
ahead of them, and gained upon us considerably ; so that 
we found they would come with us. Upon which, we fired 
a gun without ball to intimate, that they should bring to, 
and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but 
they kept crowding after us, till they came within shot, 
when we took in our white flag (they having made no an- 
swer to it), hung out a red flag, and fired at them with a 
shot. Notwithstanding this, they came on, till they were 
near enough to call to them with a speaking trumpet, which 
we had on board. So we called to them, and bid them keep 
off at their peril. 

It was all one ; they crowded after us, and endeavored to 
come under our stern, so as to board us on our quarter. 
Upon which, seeing they were resolute for mischief, and 
depended upon the strength that followed them, I ordered 
to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon our broadside, 
when immediately we fired five guns at them, one of which 
had been levelled so true as to carry away the stern of the 
hindermost boat and bring them to the necessity of taking 
down their sail, and running all to the head of the boat to 
keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; 
but seeing the foremost boat crowd on after us, we made 
ready to fire at her in particular. 

While this was doing, one of the three boats that was 
behind, being forwarder than the other two, made up to the 
boat which we had disabled to relieve her, and we could 
afterward see her take out the men. We called again to the 
foremost boat, and offered a truce to parley again, and to 
know what was her business with us, but had no answer, 
only she crowded close under our stern. Upon this, our 
gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow, run out his two 
chase-guns and fired again at her; but, the shot missing, the 
men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on. 
But the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among 
them the second time, one shot of which, though it missed 
the boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and, we could 
easily see, had done a great deal of mischief among them* 
but we, taking no notice of that, warned the ship again, and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


475 


brought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three 
guns more, we found the boat was split almost to pieces ; in 
particular, her rudder and a piece of her stern was shot quite 
away, so they handed their sail immediately, and were in 
great disorder. But to complete their misfortune, our gun- 
ner let fly two guns at them again; where he hit them we 
could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some 
of the men already in the water, Upon this, I immediately 
manned out our pinnace, which we had kept close by our 
side, with orders to pick up some of the men, if they could, 
and save them from drowning, and immediately to come on 
board with them, because we saw the rest of the boats began 
to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed their orders, 
and took up three men, one of which was just drowning, and 
it was a good while before we could recover him. As soon 
as they were on board we crowded all the sail we could 
make, and stood farther out to sea, and we found that when 
the other three boats came up to the first two, they gave 
over their chase. 

Being thus delivered from a danger, which, though I knew 
not the reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I 
apprehended, I took care that we would change our course, 
and not let any one imagine whither we were going; so we 
stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of all 
European ships, whether they were bound to China or any- 
where else within the commerce of the European nations. 

When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the 
two seamen and enquire first what the meaning of all this 
should be, and the Dutchman let us into the secret of it at 
once, telling us that the fellow that sold us the ship, as we 
said, was no more than a thief that had run away with her. 
Then he told us how the captain, — whose name, too, he told 
us, though I do not remember, — was treacherously mur- 
dered by the natives on the coast of Malacca, with three of 
his men; and that he (this Dutchman) and four more got 
into the woods, where they wandered about a great while, 
till at length, he in particular, in a miraculous manner, made 
his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which, sailing 
near the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


476 

on shore for fresh water; that he durst not come to that 
part of the shore where the boat was, but made shift in the 
night, to take the water farther off, and the ship’s boat took 
him up. 

He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of the 
seamen belonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the 
rest in their travels, and gave an account that the fellow 
who had run away with the ship, sold her at Bengal to a 
set of pirates, which were gone a cruising in her ; and that 
they had already taken an English ship, and two Dutch ships 
very richly laden. 

This latter part we found to concern us directly; and, 
though we knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very 
well, if we had fallen into their hands, and they had had such 
a prepossession against us beforehand, it had been in vain 
for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any good 
quarter at their hands ; and especially considering that our 
accusers had been our judges, and that we could have 
expected nothing from them but what rage would have 
dictated, and an ungoverned passion have executed. And, 
therefore, it was his opinion, we should go directly back to 
Bengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any 
port whatever ; because there, we could have a good account 
of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship put 
in, whom we bought her of, and the like ; and which w r as 
more than all the rest, were we put to the necessity of bring- 
ing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have 
some justice, and not be hanged first and judged afterwards. 

I was sometime of my partner’s opinion; but after a little 
more serious thinking, I told him I thought it was a very 
great hazard for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that 
we were on the wrong side of the Straits of Malacca; and 
that if the alarm was given, we should be sure to be waylaid 
on every side, as well by the Dutch of Batavia, as the English 
elsewhere; that if we should be taken, as it were running 
away, we should even condemn ourselves, and they would 
want no more evidence to destroy us. I also asked the 
English sailor’s opinion, who said he was of my mind, and 
that we should certainly be taken. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


477 


This danger a little startled my partner and all the ship’s 
company ; and we immediately resolved to go away to the 
coast of Tonquin, and so on to the coast of China, and, 
pursuing the first design as to trade, find some way or other 
to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels 
of the country, such as we could get. This was approved of 
as the best method for our security; and accordingly we 
steered away N.N.E., keeping above fifty leagues off from 
the usual course to the eastward. 

This, however, put us to some inconveniences ; for first 
the winds, when we came to the distance from the shore, 
seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, 
as we call it, from the east, and E.N.E., so that we were a 
long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided 
with victuals for so long a voyage ; and which was still 
worse, there was some danger that those English and Dutch 
ships, whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound 
that way, might be got in before us ; and if not, some other 
ship bound to China might have information of us from, 
them, and pursue us with the same vigor. 

I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought my- 
self, including the late escape from the long-boats, to have 
been in the most dangerous condition that ever I was in 
through all my past life ; for whatever ill circumstances I 
had been in, I was never pursued for a thief before, nor had 
I ever done anything that merited the name of dishonest or 
fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been my own 
enemy, or as I may rightly say, I had been nobody’s enemy 
but my own. But now I was embarrassed in the worst con- 
dition imaginable; for though I was perfectly innocent, I 
was in no condition to make that innocence appear. And if 
I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt of the 
worst kind ; at least, a crime esteemed so among the people 
I had to do with. 

This made me very anxious to make an escape, though 
which way to do it I knew not, or what port or place we 
should go to. My partner seeing me thus dejected, though 
he was the most concerned at first, began to encourage me; 
and describing to me the several ports of that coast, told me 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


47 8 

he would put in on the coast of Cochin China, or the Bay of 
Tonquin, intending to go afterwards to Macao, a town once 
in the possession of the Portuguese, and where still a great 
many European families resided, and particularly the mis- 
sionary priests usually went thither, in order to their going 
forward to China. 

Hither, then, we resolved to go; and accordingly, though 
after a tedious and irregular course, and very much straight- 
ened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very 
early in the morning; and upon reflection upon the past cir- 
cumstances we were in and the danger, if we had not 
escaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which, how- 
ever, had a depth enough of water for us, and to see if we 
could either over land or by the ship’s pinnace, come to 
know what ships were in any ports thereabouts. This 
happy step was indeed our deliverance ; for though we did 
not immediately see any European ships in the Bay of Ton- 
quin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two 
Dutch ships, and a third without any colors spread out, but 
which we believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about 
two leagues distance, steering for the coast of China. And 
in the afternoon went by two English ships, steering the 
same course ; and thus, we thought we saw ourselves beset 
with enemies both one way or other. The place we were in 
was wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by occupa- 
tion or profession ; and though it is true we had not much 
to seek of them, and except getting a few provisions, cared 
not how little we had to do with them, yet it was with much 
difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them 
several ways. 

We were in a small river of this country, within a few 
leagues of its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we 
coasted north-east, to the point of land which opens the 
great Bay of Tonquin; and it was in this beating up along 
the shore, that we discovered as above, that in a word, we 
were surrounded with enemies. The people we were among 
were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast, 
having no correspondence with any other nation, and deal- 
ing only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities ; and it 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


479 

may be particularly seen, that they are, as I said, the most 
barbarous of any of the inhabitants, viz : that among other 
customs they hav& this as one, viz : that if any vessel have the 
misfortune to be shipwrecked upon the coast, they pres- 
ently make the men all prisoners or slaves ; and it was not 
long before we found a spice of their kindness this way on 
the occasion following. 

I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, 
and that we could not find it out; and however it happened, 
that, as I have said, it was stopped unexpectedly in the 
happy minute of our being to be seized by the Dutch and 
English ships in the Bay of Siam; yet, as we did not find 
the ship so perfectly fit and sound as we desired, we 
resolved while we were in this place to lay her on shore, 
take out what heavy things we had on board, which were 
not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, and, if possible 
to find out where the leaks were. 

Accordingly having lightened the ship, and brought all 
our guns and other movable things to one side, we tried to 
bring her down, that we might come at her bottom; but on 
second thoughts we did not care to lay her dry on ground, 
neither could we find out a proper place for it. 

The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with 
such a sight, came wondering down to the shore to look at 
us; and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a 
manner, and heeling in towards the shore, and not seeing 
our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages 
and with their boats on the off-side, they presently con- 
cluded that the ship was cast away, and so lay fast on the 
ground. 

On this supposition, they came all about us in two or 
three hours’ time, with ten or twelve large boats, having 
some of them eight, some ten, men in a boat, intending, no 
doubt, to have come on board and plundered the ship; and 
if they had found us there to have carried us away for slaves 
to their king, or whatever they call him, for we knew nothing 
who was their governor. 

When they came up to the ship, and began to row round 
her, they discovered us all hard at work on the outside of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


480 

the ship’s bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stop- 
ping, as every seafaring man knows how. 

They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who were a 
little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; 
but, being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to 
get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms 
and ammunition to .those that were at work to defend 
themselves with, if there should be occasion ; and it was no 
more than need; for in less than a quarter of an hour’s 
consulation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a 
wreck, that we were all at work endeavoring to save her, or 
to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we 
handed our arms into the boats, they concluded, by that 
motion, that we were endeavoring to save some of our goods. 
Upon this they took it for granted we all belonged to them; 
and away they came down upon our men, as if it had been in 
a line of battle. 

Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frighted ; 
for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us 
to know what they should do. I immediately called to the 
men who worked upon the stage, to slip them down, and get 
up the side into the ship ; and bade those in the boat to row 
round and come on board. And those few of us who were 
on board, worked with all the strength and hands we had to 
bring the ship to rights. But, however, neither the men 
upon the stage, or those in the boats, could do as they were 
ordered, before the Cochin Chinese were upon them, and 
two of their boats boarded our long-boat, and began to lay 
hold of the men as their prisoners. 

The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a 
stout, strong fellow, who, having a musket in his hand, never 
offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I 
thought. But he understood his business better than I 
could teach him; for he grappled the pagan, and dragged 
him by main force out of their own boat into ours; where, 
taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against the 
boat’s gunnel, that the fellow died instantly in his hands; 
and in the meantime, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up 
the musket, and with the butt-end of it so laid about him 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


481 

that he knocked down five of them, who attempted to enter 
the boat. But this was doing little towards resisting thirty 
or forty men, who, fearless, because ignorant of their danger, 
began to throw themselves into the long-boat, where we had 
but five men in all to defend it. But one accident gave our 
men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather 
than anything else. And that was this. 

Our carpenter being preparing to grave the outside of the 
ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her 
to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the 
boat: one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, 
tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights use for 
that work ; and the man that attended the carpenter, had a 
great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men 
that were at work with that hot stuff. Two of the enemy’s 
men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in 
the fore-sheets ; he immediately saluted them with a ladle- 
ful of the stuff, boiling hot, which so burnt and scalded 
them, being half naked, that they roared out like two bulls, 
and enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. The 
carpenter saw it, and cried out, “ Well done, Jack, give them 
some more of it.” And stepping forward himself, takes one 
of their mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his 
man threw it among them so plentifully, that in short, of all 
the men in the three boats, there was not one that was not 
scalded, and burnt with it in a most frightful and pitiful 
manner, and made such a howling and crying, that I never 
heard a worse noise, and indeed nothing like it ; for it is 
worth observing, that though pain naturally makes all 
people cry out, yet every nation has a particular way of 
exclamation, and making noises as different from one 
another as their speech. I cannot give the noise these 
creatures made a better name than howling, nor a name 
more proper to the tone of it ; for I never heard anything 
more like the noise of the wolves, which, as I have said, I 
heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of Languedoc. 

I was never pleased with a victory better in my life, — not 
only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger 
was imminent before, but as we got this victory without any 

16 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


482 

bloodshed, except of that man the fellow killed with his 
naked hands, and which I was very much concerned at; for 
1 was sick of killing such poor savage wretches, even though 
it was in my own defense, knowing they came on errands 
which they thought just, and knew no better. And that 
though it may be a just thing, because necessary (for there 
is no necessary wickedness in nature), yet I thought it was 
a sad life in which we must be always obliged to be killing 
our fellow-creatures to preserve our own; and, indeed, I 
think so still; and I would even now suffer a great deal, 
rather than take away the life even of the person injuring 
me. And I believe all considering people who know the 
value of life would be of my opinion, — at least, they would 
if they entered seriously into the consideration of it. 

But to return to my story. All the while this was doing, 
my partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on 
board, had, with great dexterity, brought the ship almost to 
rights ; and, having gotten the guns into their places again, 
the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, 
for he would let fly among them. I called back again to 
him and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do 
the work without him; but bade him heat another pitch- 
kettle, which our cook, who was on board, took care of. 
But the enemy were so terrified with what they had met with 
in their first attack, that they would not come on again. 
And some of them that were farthest off, seeing the ship 
swim, as it were, upright, begun, as we supposed, to see 
their mistake and give over the enterprise, finding it was 
not as they expected. Thus we got clear of this merry 
fight; and, having gotten some rice and some roots and 
bread, with about sixteen good big hogs on board two days 
before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, 
whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should 
be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps 
more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us. 

We therefore got all our things on board the same eve- 
ning, and the next morning were ready to sail. In the 
meantime, lying at an anchor at some distance, we were not 
so much concerned, being now in a fighting posture as well 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


483 

as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. The 
next day, having finished our work within board, and finding 
our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. 
We would have gone into the Bay of Tonquin, for we wanted 
to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the 
Dutch ships that had been there ; but we durst not stand in 
there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we sup- 
posed, but a little before. So we kept on N. E., towards the 
Isle of Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch 
or English merchant ship as a Dutch or English merchant 
ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man-of-war. 

When we were thus got to sea, we kept out N. E., as if 
we would go to the Manillas or Philippine Islands; and this 
we did that we might not fall into the way of any of our 
European ships ; and then we steered north till we came to 
the latitude of 22 degrees, 30 minutes, by which means we 
made the Island of Formosa directly, where we came to an 
anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the 
people there, who are very courteous and civif in their man- 
ners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and 
punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains, 
which is what we did not find among other people, and may 
be owing to the remains of Christianity which was once 
planted here by a Dutch missionary of Protestants, and is a 
testimony of what I have often observed, viz: that the Chris- 
tian religion always civilizes the people and reforms their 
manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects 
upon them or no. 

From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of 
China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all 
the ports of China where our European ships usually come, 
being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, 
especially in this country, wdiere, as our circumstances were, 
we could not fail of being entirely ruined ; nay, so great was 
my fear in particular as to my being taken by them, that I 
believe firmly I would much rather have chosen to fall into 
the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. 

Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved 
to put in to the first trading port we should come at; and, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


484 

standing in for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, 
with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to 
be a European ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, 
we were very glad of, and took him on board ; upon which, 
without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the 
boat he came in, and sent them back. 

I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the 
old man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk 
with him about carrying us to the Gulf of Nankin, which is 
the most northern part of the coast of China. The old man 
said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well ; but, smiling, 
asked us what we would do there. 

I told him we would sell our cargo and purchase China 
wares, calicos, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, etc., and so 
would return by the same course we came. He told us our 
best port had been to have put in at Macao, where we could 
not have failed of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, 
and might, for our money, have purchased all sorts of China 
goods as cheap as we could at Nankin. 

Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which 
he was very opinionated or conceited, I told him we were 
gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to 
go and see the great city of Pekin and the famous court of 
the monarch of China. “Why, then,” said the old man, 
“you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river which runs 
into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the 
great canal. This canal is a navigable river, which goes 
through the heart of all that vast empire of China, crosses 
all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of 
sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in 
length near 270 leagues.” 

“Well,” said I, “Seignior Portuguese; but that is not our 
business now. The great question is if you can carry us up 
to the city of Nankin, from whence we can travel to Pekin 
afterwards.” “Yes,” he said, “he could do so very well, 
and that there was a great Dutch ship gone by that way just 
before” This gave me a little shock. A Dutch ship was 
now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, 
— at least, if he had not come in too frightful a figure; and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


485 

we depended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our de* 
struction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the 
ships they trade with into those parts being of great burden 
and of much greater force than we were. 

The old man found me a little confused and under some 
concern when he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, “ Sir, 
you need be under no apprehensions of the Dutch ; I sup-, 
pose they are not now at war with your nation.” “No, ’’said 
I, “that’s true; but I know not what liberties men may take 
when they are out of the reach of the law.” “ Why,” said 
he, “you are no pirates, what need you fear? They will 
not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure.” 

If I had any blood in my body that did not fly up into 
my face at that word, it was hindered by some stop in the 
vessels, appointed by nature to prevent it ; for it put me into 
the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable ; nor was it 
possible for me to conceal it so but that the old man easily 
perceived it. 

“ Sir,” said he, “ I find you are in some disorder in your 
thoughts at my talk ; pray be pleased to go which way you 
think fit, and, depend upon it, I’ll do you all the service I 
can.” “Why, seignior,” said I, “it is true I am a little un- 
settled in my resolution at this time whither to go in particu- 
lar; and I am something more so for what you said about 
pirates ; I hope there are no pirates in these seas ; we are 
but in an ill condition to meet with them, for you see we 
have but a small force, and but very weakly manned.” 

“ O, sir,” said he, “do not be concerned; I do not know 
that there has been any pirates in these seas these fifteen 
years, except one which was seen, as I hear, in the bay of 
Siam, about a month since ; but you may be assured she is 
gone to the southward; nor was she a ship of any great 
force, or fit for the work ; she was not built for a privateer, 
but was run away with by a reprobate crew that were on 
board, after the captain and some of his men had been mur- 
dered by the Malayans, at, or near the island of Sumatra.” 

“ What ! ” said I, (seeming to know nothing of the matter) 
“ did they murder the captain ? ” “ No,” said he, “ I did not 

understand that they murdered him ; but as they afterwards 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


486 

run away with the ship, it is generally believed they betrayed 
him into the hands of the Malayans, who did murder him, 
and perhaps they procured them to do it.” “ Why, then,” 
said I, “they deserve death as much as if they had done it 
themselves.” “ Nay,” said the old man, “ they do deserve 
it, and they will certainly have it, if they light upon any Eng- 
lish or Dutch ship ; for they have all agreed together, that 
if they meet that rogue, they will give him no quarter.” 

“ But,” said I to him, “ you say the pirate is gone out of 
those seas. How can they meet with him?” “Why, that is 
true,” said he, “they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in 
the bay of Siam, in the river Cambodia, and was discovered 
there by some Dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who 
were left on shore when they ran away with her ; and some 
English and Dutch traders being in the river, they were 
within a little of taking him. Nay,” said he, “ if the fore- 
most boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had 
certainly taken him; but he finding only two boats within 
reach of him, tacked about, and fired at these two, and dis- 
abled them before the other came up, and then standing off 
to sea, the other was not able to follow him, and so he got 
away. But they have all so exact a description of the ship, 
that they will be sure to know him ; and wherever they find 
him, they have vowed to give no quarter, to either the cap- 
tain or the seamen, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm.” 

“What?” said I, “will they execute them right or wrong, 
hang them first, and judge them afterwards ? ” “ O sir,” 

said the old pilot, “there’s no need to make a formal busi- 
ness of it with such rogues as those, let them tie them back 
to back, and set them a diving. It is no more than they 
richly deserve.” 

I knew I had my old man fast aboard, and that he could 
do me no harm, so that I turned short upon him ; “Well, 
now, seignior,” said I, “and this is the very reason, why I 
would have you carry us up to Nankin, and not to put back 
to Macao, or to any other part of the country, where the 
English or Dutch ships come. For be it known to you, seig- 
nior, those captains of tbe English and Dutch ships, are a 
parcel of rash, proud, insolent fellows, that neither know 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


487 

what belongs to justice, nor how to behave themselves, as 
the laws of God and nature direct; but, being proud of their 
offices, and not understanding their power, they would act 
the murderers to punish robbers ; would take upon them to 
insult men falsely accused, and determine them guilty with- 
out due inquiry ; and perhaps I may live to call some of 
them to an account for it, where they may be taught how 
justice is to be. executed, and that no man ought to be 
treated as a criminal till some evidence may be had of the 
crime, and that he is the man.” 

With this, I told him that this was the very ship they 
attacked, and gave him a full account of the skirmish we 
had with their boats, and how foolishly and coward-like 
they behaved. I told him all the story of our buying the 
ship, and how the Dutchmen served us. I told him the 
reasons I had to believe that this story of killing the master 
by the Malayans was not true, as also the running away 
with the ship; but that it was all a fiction of their own, to 
suggest that the men were turned pirates ; and they ought 
to have been sure it was so, before they had ventured to 
attack us by surprise, and oblige us to resist them ; adding 
that they would have the blood of those men whom we 
killed there in our just defense to answer for. 

The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us, 
we were very much in the right to go away to the north, and 
that, if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in 
China, which we might very well do, and buy or build 
another in the country ; “ and,” said he, “ though you will not 
get so good a ship, yet you may get one able enough to 
carry you and all your goods back again to Bengal, or any- 
where else.” 

I told him I would take his advice, when I came to any 
port where I could find a ship for my turn, or get any custo- 
mer to buy this. He replied, I should meet with customers 
enough for the ship at Nankin, and that a Chinese junk 
would serve me very well to go back again ; and that he 
would procure me people, both to buy one and sell the 
other. 

“Well, but seignior,” said I, “as you say they know the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


488 

ship so well, I may, perhaps, if I follow your measures, be 
instrumental to bring some honest, innocent man into a 
terrible broil, and perhaps to be murdered in cold blood; 
for, wherever they find the ship, they will prove the guilt 
upon the men, by proving this was the ship; and so inno- 
cent men may probably be overpowered and murdered.” 
“Why,” said the old man, “ I will find out a way to prevent 
that, also ; for as I know all those commanders you speak 
of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will 
be sure to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know 
that they had been so much in the wrong ; that though the 
people who were on board at first might run away with the 
ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates ; and 
that in particular, these were not the men that first went off 
with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; 
and I am persuaded they will so far believe me, as at least 
to act more cautiously for the time to come.” “Well,” said 
I, “and will you deliver one message to them from me?” 
“Yes, I will,” said he, “if you will give it under your hand 
in writing, that I may be able to prove that it came from 
you, and not out of my own head.” I answered, that I would 
readily give it him under my hand. So I took a pen and 
ink, and paper, and wrote at large the story of assaulting me 
with the long-boats, etc.; the pretended reason of it, and 
the unjust, cruel design of it; and concluded to the com- 
manders that they had done what they not only should 
have been ashamed of, but also, that if ever they came to 
England, and I lived to see them there, they should all pay 
dearly for it, if the laws of my country had not grown out of 
use before I arrived there. 

My old pilot read this over and over again, and asked me 
several times if I would stand to it. I answered I would stand 
to it as long as I had anything left in the world, being sensible 
that I should one time or other find an opportunity to put it 
home to them. But we had no occasion ever to let the pilot 
carry this letter, for he never went back again. While those 
things were passing between us, by way of discourse, we went 
forward, directly for Nankin, and, in about thirteen days’ sail 
came to an anchor, at the south-west point of the great Gulf of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


489 

Nankin, where, oy the way, I came by accident to understand 
that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me, and 
that I should certainly fall into their hands. I consulted 
my partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a 
loss as I was, and would very gladly have been safe on shore 
almost anywhere. However, I was not in such perplexity 
neither ; but I asked the old pilot, if there was no creek or 
harbor, which I might put into, and pursue my business 
with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of the 
enemy ? He told me if I would sail to the southward about 
two-and-forty leagues, there was a little port called Quin- 
chang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from 
Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to 
the Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in ; and 
if I thought to put in there, I might consider what farther 
course to take when I was ashore. He confessed, he said, 
it was not a place for merchants, except that at some certain 
times they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants 
from Japan came over to buy the Chinese merchandise. 

We all agreed to go back to this place; the name of the 
port, as he called it, I may perhaps spell wrong, for I do 
not particularly remember it, having lost this together with 
the names of many other places set down in a little pocket- 
book, which was spoiled by the water, on an accident which 
I shall relate in its order. But this I remember, that the 
Chinese or Japanese merchants that we corresponded with, 
called it by a different name from that which our Portuguese 
pilot gave it, and pronounced it as above, Quinchang. 

As we were unanimous in our resolution to go to this 
place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice 
ashore, where we were to get fresh water ; on both which 
occasions the people of the country were tery civil to us, 
and brought us abundance of things to sell to us ; I mean, 
of provisions, plants, roots, tea, rice, and some fowls, but 
nothing without money. 

We came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not 
till five days, but it was very much to our satisfaction ; and 
I was joyful, and I may say, thankful, when I set my foot 
safe on shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was 


49 ° 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, 
though not every way to our satisfaction, we would never 
set one foot on board that unhappy vessel more; and 
indeed, I must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances 
of life that ever I had any experience of, nothing makes 
mankind so completely miserable, as that of being in con- 
stant fear. Well does the Scripture say, “The fear of man 
brings a snare.” It is a life of death, and the mind is so 
entirely suppressed by it that it is capable of no relief; the 
animal spirits sink, and all the vigor of nature, which usually 
supports men under other afflictions, and is present to them 
in the greatest exigencies, fails them here. 

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy by 
heightening every danger, representing the English and 
Dutch captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or 
of distinguishing between honest men and rogues, or 
between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of 
nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true, genuine account 
of our whole voyage, progress, and design; for we might 
many ways have convinced any reasonable creature that we 
were not pirates. The goods we had on board, the course 
we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into 
such and such ports ; and even our very manner, the force 
we had, the number of men, the few arms, little ammunition, 
short provisions, all these would have served to convince 
any man that we were no pirates. The opium and other 
goods we had on board, would make it appear the ship had 
been at Bengal; the Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the 
names of all the men that were in the ship, might easily 
see that we were a mixture of English, Portuguese, and 
Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board. These, and 
many other particular circumstances might have made it 
evident to the understanding of any commander whose 
hands we might fall into that we were no pirates. 

But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, 
and threw us into the vapors; it bewildered our understand- 
ings, and set the imagination at work to form a thousand 
terrible things that perhaps might never happen. We first 
supposed, as indeed everybody had related to us, that the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


49 1 


seamen on board the English and Dutch ships, but espe- 
cially the Dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, 
and especially at our beating of their boats and escaping, 
that they would not give themselves leave to enquire whether 
we were pirates or no, but would execute us off-hand, as we 
call it, without giving us any room for a defense. We 
reflected that there was really so much apparent evidence 
before them, that they would scarce enquire after any more, 

— as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, and that 
some of the seamen among them knew her and had been on 
board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence, at 
the river of Cambodia, that they were coming down to ex- 
amine us, we fought their boats and fled ; so that we made 
no doubt but they were fully satisfied of our being pirates 
as we were satisfied of the contrary; and, as I often said, 
I know not but I should have been apt to have taken those 
circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and 
my case was theirs, and have made no scruple of cutting all 
the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps considering, 
what they might have to offer in their defense. 

But let that be how it will, those were our apprehensions; 
and both my partner and I, too, scarce slept a night without 
dreaming of halters and yard-arms, — that is to say, gibbets, 

— of fighting and being taken, of killing and being killed; 
and one night I was in such a fury in my dream, fancying 
the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one of 
their seamen down, that I struck my double fist against the 
side of the cabin I lay in, with such force as wounded my 
hand most grievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and 
bruised the flesh; so that it not only waked me out of my 
sleep, but I was once afraid I should have lost two of my 
fingers. 

Another apprehension I had was of the cruel usage we 
might meet with from them if we fell into their hands. Then 
the story of Amboyna came into my head, and how the 
Dutch might, perhaps, torture us, as they did our country- 
men there, and make some of the men, by extremity of tor- 
ture, confess those crimes they never were guilty of, — own 
themselves and all of us to be pirates, and so they would 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


49 2 

put us to death, with a formal appearance of justice ; and 
that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our 
ship and cargo, which was worth four or five thousand 
pounds, put all together. 

These things tormented me and my partner, too, night and 
day; nor did we consider that the captains of ships have no 
authority to act thus ; and if we had surrendered prisoners 
to them they could not answer the destroying us, or tortur- 
ing us, but would be accountable for it when they came into 
their own country. This, I say, gave me no satisfaction; 
for if they will act thus with us, what advantage would it be 
to us that they would be called to an account for it? Or, if 
we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would it be 
to us to have them punished when they came home ? 

I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now 
had upon the past variety of my particular circumstances, — 
how hard I thought it was that I, who had spent forty years 
in a life of continued difficulties, and was, at last, come, as 
it were, to the port or haven which all men drive at, viz : to 
have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows 
by my own unhappy choice; and that I, who escaped so 
many dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged 
in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime I was 
not in the least inclined to, much less really guilty of, and in 
a place and circumstance where innocence was not like to 
be any protection at all to me. 

After these thoughts, something of religion would come 
in ; and I would be considering that this seemed to me to 
be a disposition of immediate Providence, and I ought to 
look upon it, and submit to it as such ; that, although I was 
innocent as to men, I was far from being innocent as to my 
Maker; and I ought to look in and examine what other 
crimes in my life were more obvious to me, and for which 
Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retri- 
bution ; and that I ought to submit to this, just as I would 
to a shipwreck, if it had pleased God to have brought such 
a disaster upon me. 

In its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its 
place ; and then I would be talking myself up to vigorous 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


493 


resolutions, that I would not be taken, to be barbarously 
used by a parcel of merciless wretches in cold blood ; that it 
were much better to have fallen into the hands of the 
savages, who were men-eaters, and who, I was sure, would 
feast upon me, when they had taken me, than by those who 
would perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures 
and barbarities ; that in the case of the savages I always 
resolved to die fighting to the last gasp ; and why should I 
not do so, seeing it was much more dreadful to me at least 
to think of falling into these men’s hands, than ever it was 
to think of being eaten by men ; for the savages, give them 
their due, would not eat a man till he was dead, and killed 
them first, as we do a bullock ; but that these men had many 
arts beyond the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts 
prevailed, I was sure to put myself in a kind of fever, with 
the agitations of a supposed fight ; my blood would boil, and 
my eyes sparkle, as if I was engaged ; and I always resolved 
that I would take no quarter at their hands ; but even at 
last, if I could resist no longer, I would blow up the ship 
and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to 
boast of. 

By how much the greater weight, the anxieties and per- 
plexities of these things were to our thoughts while we were 
at sea, by so much the greater was our satisfaction when 
we saw ourselves on shore ; and my partner told me he 
dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which 
he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to 
stand long under it; but that the Portuguese pilot came and 
took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground 
before him showing all smooth and plain ; and truly it was 
so : we were all like men who had a load taken off their 
backs. 

For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart that 
I was not able any longer to bear ; and as I said above, we 
resolved to go no more to sea in that ship. When we came 
on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a 
lodging and a warehouse for our goods, which, by the way, 
was much the same ; it was a little house or hut, with a large 
house joining to it, all built with canes, and palisaded 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


494 

round with large canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of 
which it seems there were not a few in that country. How- 
ever, the magistrates allowed us also a little guard, and we 
had a sentinel with a kind of halberd, or half-pike, who stood 
sentinel at our door ; to \Hiom we allowed a pint of rice and 
a little piece of money, about the value of threepence per 
day, so that our goods were kept very safe. 

The fair or mart usually kept in this place had been over 
some time ; however, we found that there were three or four 
junks in the river, and two Japanners, I mean ships from 
Japan, with goods which they had bought in China, and were 
not gone away, having Japanese merchants on shore. 

The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to 
bring us acquainted with three missionary Romish priests 
who were in the town, and who had been there some time, 
converting the people to Christianity; but we thought they 
made but poor work of it, and made them but sorry Christ- 
ians when they had done. However, that was none of our 
business. One of these was a Frenchman, whom they 
called Father Simon ; he was a jolly, well-conditioned man, 
very free in his conversation, not seeming so serious and 
grave as the other two did, one of whom was a Portuguese, 
and the other a Genoese ; but Father Simon was courteous, 
easy in his manner, and very agreeable company. The 
other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, 
and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz : to 
talk with and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants 
wherever they had opportunity. We often ate and drank 
with those men; and, though I must confess the conversion, 
as they call it, of the Chinese to Christianity, is so far from 
the true conversion required to bring heathen people to the 
faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to little more than 
letting them know the name of Christ, and say some prayers 
to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in a tongue which they 
understand not, and to cross themselves and the like ; yet 
it must be confessed that these religious whom we call mis- 
sionaries have a firm belief that those people shall be saved, 
and that they are the instruments of it; and on this account 
they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage and hazards 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


495 

of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself with the 
most violent tortures, for the sake of this work; and it 
would be a great want of charity in us, whatever opinion 
we have of the work itself and the manner of doing- it, if 
we should not have a good opinion of their zeal, who under- 
took it with so many hazards, and who have no prospect of 
the least temporal advantage to themselves. 

But to return to my story. This French priest, Father 
Simon, was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the 
mission, to go up to Pekin, the royal seat of the Chinese 
emperor, and waited only for another priest, who was 
ordered to come to him from Macao, to go along with 
him ; and we scarce ever met together but he was inviting 
me to go that journey, telling me how he would show me all 
the glorious things of that mighty empire, and among the 
rest, the greatest city in the world, — “ A city,” said he, “that 
your London and our Paris put together, cannot be equal to.” 
This was the city of Pekin, which I confess is very great, 
and infinitely full of people ; but as I looked on those things 
with different eyes from other men, so I shall give my opin- 
ion of them in a few words, when I come in the course of 
my travels to speak more particularly of them. 

But first, I come to my friar or missionary. Dining with 
him one day, and being very merry together, I showed some 
little inclination to go with him, and he pressed me and my 
partner very hard and with a great many persuasions to con- 
sent. “Why, Father Simon,” said my partner, “why should 
you desire our company so much? You know we are here- 
tics, and you do not love us, nor cannot keep us company 
with any pleasure.” “ O,” said he, “ you may perhaps be 
good Catholics in time; my business here is to convert 
heathens, and who knows but I may convert you, too ?” 
“Very well, father,” said I, “ so you will preach to us all the 
way.” “ I won’t be troublesome to you,” said he ; “ our 
religion does not divest us of good manners ; besides,” said 
he, “ we are here like countrymen, and so we are, compared 
to the place we are in; and if you are Huguenots, and I a 
Catholic, we may be all Christians at last ; at least,” said he, 
“ we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so without being 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


496 

uneasy to one another.” I liked that part of his discourse 
very well, and it began to put me in mipd of my priest that 
I had left in the Brazils; but this Father Simon did not 
come up to his character by a great deal, for, though Father 
Simon had no appearance of a criminal levity in him neither, 
yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict piety, and 
sincere affection to religion that my other good ecclesiastic 
had, of whom I have said so much. 

But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor 
soliciting us to go with him, but we had something else 
before us at first ; for we had all this while our ship, and our 
merchandise to dispose of, and we began to be very doubt- 
ful what we should do, for we were now in a place of very 
little business ; and once I was about to venture to sail for 
the river of Kilam, and the city of Nankin. But Providence 
seemed now more visibly, as 1 thought, than ever, to con- 
cern itself in our affair ; and I was encouraged, from this 
very time, to think I should, one way or other, get out of 
this tangled circumstance, and be brought home to my own 
country again, though I had not the least view of the man- 
ner; and when I began sometimes to think of it, could not 
imagine by what method it was to be done. Providence, I 
say, began here to clear up our way a little : and the first 
thing that offered was, that our old Portuguese pilot brought 
a Japan merchant to us, who began to enquire what goods 
we had ; and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, 
and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by 
weight; some in small pieces of their own coin, and some 
in small wedges, of about ten or eleven ounces each. While 
we were dealing with him for our opium, it came into my 
head, that he might, perhaps, deal with us for the ship too, 
and I ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. Fie 
shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first proposed to 
him ; but, in a few days after, he came to me with one of 
the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he 
had a proposal to make to me, and that was this : He had 
bought a great quantity of goods of us, when he had no 
thoughts (or proposals made to him) of buying the ship ; and 
that, therefore, he had not money enough to pay for the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


497 

ship; but if I would let the same men who were in the ship 
navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan, and 
would send them from thence to the Philippine Islands with 
another loading, which he would pay the freight of, before 
they went from Japan; and that, at their return, he would 
buy the ship. I began to listen to his proposal, and so 
eager did my head still run upon rambling, that I could not 
but begin to entertain a notion of going myself with him, 
and to sail from the Philippine Islands, away to the South 
Seas ; and, accordingly, I asked the Japan merchant if he 
would not hire us to the Philippine Islands, and discharge 
us there. He said, No, he could not do that, for then he 
could not have the return of his cargo ; but he would dis- 
charge us in Japan, he said, at the ship’s return. Well, still 
I was for taking him at that proposal, and going myself; 
but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, 
representing the dangers as well of the seas as of the Jap- 
anese, who are a false, cruel, and treacherous people; and 
then of the Spaniards at the Philippines, more false, more 
cruel, and more treacherous than they. 

But to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion. 
The first thing we had to do, was to consult with the cap- 
tain of the ship and with his men, and know if they were 
willing to go to Japan; and while I was doing this, the 
young man, whom, as I said, my nephew had left with me 
as my companion for my travels, came to me, and told me 
that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that 
there was a great prospect of advantage, and he would be 
very glad if I undertook it ; but that if I would not, and 
would give him leave, he would go as a merchant, or how I 
pleased to order him; that if ever he came to England, and 
I was there and alive, he would render me a faithful account 
of his success, and it should be as much mine as I pleased. 

I was really loath to part with him, but, considering the 
prospect of advantage, which was really considerable, and 
that he was a young fellow, as likely to do well in it as any 
I knew, I inclined to let him go; but first I told him I 
would consult my partner, and give him an answer the next 
day. My partner and I discoursed about it, and my partner 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


498 

made a most generous offer. He told me, “ You know it 
has been an unlucky ship, and we both resolved not to go to 
sea in it again. If your steward (so he called my man), will 
venture the voyage, I’ll leave my share of the vessel to him, 
and let him make his best of it; and if we live to meet in 
England, and he meets with success abroad, he shall ac- 
count for one half of the profits of the ship’s freight to us, 
the other shall be his own.” 

If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young 
man, made him such an offer, I could do no less than offer 
him the same; and all the ship’s company being willing to 
go with him, we made over half the ship to him in property, 
and took a writing from him, obliging him to acconnt for the 
other, and away he went to Japan. The Japan merchant proved 
a very punctual, honest man to him, protected him at Japan, 
and got him a license to come on shore, which the Europeans 
in general have not lately obtained; paid him his freight 
very punctually, sent him to the Philippines, loaded with 
Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who, 
trafficing with the Spaniards, brought back European goods 
again, and a great quantity of cloves and other spices ; and 
there he was net only paid his freight very well, and at a very 
good price, but being not willing to sell the ship then, the mer- 
chant furnished him with goods on his own account; that 
for some money and some spices of his own, which he 
brought with him he went back to the Manillas to the Span- 
iards, where he sold his cargo very well. Here, having got- 
ten a good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a 
free ship; and the governor of Manilla hired him to go to 
Acapulco, in America, on the coast of Mexico, and gave 
him a license to land there and travel to Mexico, and to pass 
in any Spanish ship to Europe, with all his men. 

He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and there 
he sold his ship; and* having there also obtained allowance 
to travel bv land to Portobello, he found means somehow 
or other, to get to Jamaica, with all his treasure; and about 
eight years after, came to England exceeding rich, of the 
which I shall take notice in its place; in the meantime, I 
return to our particular affairs. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


499 


Being now to part with the ship and ship’s company, it 
came before us of course, to consider what recompense we 
should give to the two men that they gave us such timely 
notice of the design against us in the river Cambodia. The 
truth was, that they had done us a considerable service, and 
deserved well at our hands ; though, by the way, they were 
a couple of rogues, too ; for, as they believed the story of our 
being pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, 
they came down to us, not only to betray the design that was 
formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pirates; and 
one of them confessed afterwards, that nothing else but the 
hopes of going a roguing brought him to do it. However, 
the service they did us was not the less ; and, therefore, as 
I had promised to be grateful to them, I first ordered the 
money to be paid to them which they said was due to them 
on board their respective ships ; that is to say, the English- 
man nineteen months pay, and to the Dutchman seven; and 
over and above that I gave them, each of them, a small sum 
of money in gold, and which contented them very well. 
Then I made the Englishman gunner in the ship, the gunner 
being now made second mate and purser ; the Dutchman I 
made boatswain ; so they were both very well pleased, and 
proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very 
stout fellows. 

We were nowon shore in China. If I thought myself ban- 
ished and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I 
had many ways to get home for my money, what could I 
think of myself now, when I was gotten about a thousand 
leagues further off from home, and perfectly destitute of all 
manner of prospect of return ? 

All we had for it was this, that in about four months’ time 
there was to be another fair at the place where we were ; and 
then we might be able to purchase all sorts of the manufac- 
tures of the country, and withal, might possibly find some 
Chinese junks or vessels from Tonquin, that would be to be 
sold, and would carry us and our goods whither we pleased; 
this I liked very well, and resolved to wait ; besides, as our 
particular persons were not obnoxious, so, if any English or 
Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an oppor- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


500 

tunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other 
place in India, nearer home. 

Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to 
divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into the 
country. First, we went ten days’ journey to see the city of 
Nankin, — a city well worth seeing indeed; they say it has a 
million of people in it, which, however, I do not believe. It 
is regularly built, the streets, all exactly straight, and cross 
one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great 
advantage. 

But when I came to compare the miserable people of these 
countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living, 
their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory 
(as some call it), I must confess I do not so much as think 
it is worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any 
that shall come after me to read. 

It is very observable that we wonder at the grandeur, the 
riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the man- 
ufactures, the commerce, and the conduct of these people, — 
not that it is to be wondered at, or indeed in the least to be 
regarded ; but because, having first a true notion of the bar- 
barity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance 
that prevails there, we do not expect to find any such things 
so far off. 

Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and 
royal buildings of Europe? What is their trade to the uni- 
versal commerce of England, Holland, France and Spain? 
What are their cities to ours for wealth, strength, gaiety of 
apparel, rich furniture, and an infinite variety? What are 
their ports, supplied with a few junks and barks, to our 
navigation, our merchant fleets, our large and powerful 
navies ? Our city of London has more trade than all their 
mighty empire. One English or Dutch or French man-of- 
war of eighty guns, would fight and destroy all the shipping 
of China. But the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the 
power of their government and strength of their armies, is 
surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them 
as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, 
we did not expect such things among them ; and this indeed 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 QI 

is the advantage with which all their greatness and power is 
represented to us ; otherwise it is in itself nothing at all. 
For, as I have said of their ships, so may be said of their 
armies and troops. All the forces of their empire, though 
they were to bring two millions of men into the field together, 
would be able to do nothing but ruin the country and starve 
themselves. If they were to besiege a strong town in Flan- 
ders, or to fight a disciplined army, one line of German 
cuirassiers or of French cavalry would overthrow all the 
horse of China. A million of their foot could not stand 
before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not 
to be surrounded, though they were to be not one to twenty 
in number. Nay, I do not boast if I say that 30,000 German 
or English foot and 10,000 French horse would fairly beat 
all the forces of China. And so of our fortified towns, and 
of the art of our engineers in assaulting and defending towns. 
There’s not a fortified town in China could hold out one 
month against the batteries and attacks of a European army. 
And, at the same time, all the armies in China could never 
take such a town as Dunkirk, provided it was not starved; 
no, not in ten years’ siege. They have fire-arms, ’tis true; but 
they are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off. They 
have powder; but it is of no strength. They have neither 
discipline in the field, exercise to their arms, skill to attack, 
or temper to retreat; and, therefore, I must confess, it 
seemed strange to me, when I came home and heard our 
people say such fine things of the power, riches, glory, mag- 
nificence and trade of the Chinese; because I saw and knew 
that they were a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, 
sordid slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to 
rule such a people ; and, in a word, for I am now launched 
quite beside my design, — I say, in a word, were not its dis- 
tance inconceivably great from Muscovy, and was not the 
Muscovite empire almost as rude, impotent and ill-governed 
a crowd of slaves as they, the Czar of Muscovy might, with 
much ease, drive them all out of their country and conquer 
them in one campaign. And had the Czar, who I since hear 
is a growing prince and begins to appear formidable in the 
world, fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5°2 

Swedes, in which attempt none of the powers of Europe 
would have envied or interrupted him, he might, by this 
time, have been emperor of China, instead of being beaten 
by the King of Sweden at Narva, when the latter was not 
one to six in number. As their strength and their grandeur, 
so their navigation, commerce and husbandry is imperfect 
and impotent, compared to the same things in Europe ; also 
in their knowledge, their learning, their skill in the sciences. 
They have globes and spheres, and a smatch of the knowl- 
edge of mathematics; but when you come to enquire into 
their knowledge, how short-sighted are the wisest of their 
students ! They know nothing of the motion cf the heav- 
enly bodies ; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant, that when 
the sun is eclipsed they think ’tis a great dragon has as- 
saulted and run away with it, and they fall a clattering with 
all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the 
monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees. 

As this is the only excursion of this kind which I have 
made in all the account I have given of my travels, so I 
shall make no more descriptions of countries and people, — ’tis 
none of my business, or any part of my design ; but giving 
an account of my own adventures, through a life of inimitable 
wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which perhaps 
few that come after me will have heard the like of it; I shall 
therefore say very little of all the mighty places, desert 
countries and numerous people I have yet to pass through, 
more than relates to my own story, and which my concern 
among them will make necessary. I was now, as near as I 
can compute, in the heart of China, about the latitude cf 
thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from 
Nanldn. I had, indeed, a mind to see the city of Pekin, 
which I had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned 
me daily to do it. At length, his time of going away being 
set, and the other missionary, who was to go with him, 
being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we should 
resolve either to go or not to go ; so I referred him to my 
partner, and left it wholly to his choice, who at length 
resolved it in the affirmative, and we prepared for our 
journey. We set out with very good advantage, as to find- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5°3 

ing the way, for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one 
of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy or principal magis- 
trate in the province where they reside, and who take great 
state upon them, travelling with great attendance and with 
great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatlv 
impoverished by them, because all the countries they pass 
through are obliged to furnish provisions for them and all 
their attendance. That which I particularly observed, as 
to our travelling with his baggage, was this, that though we 
received sufficient provisions, both for ourselves and our 
horses, from the country, as belonging to the Mandarin, yet 
we were obliged to pay for everything we had, after the 
market price of the country, and the Mandarin’s steward, or 
commissary of the provisions, collected it duly from us; 
so that our travelling in the retinue of the Mandarin, though 
it was a very great kindness to us, was not such a mighty 
favor in him, but was indeed a great advantage to him, con- 
sidering there were above thirty other people travelled in the 
same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue, or 
as we may call it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great 
advantage to him, for the country furnished all the provisions 
for nothing, and he took all our money for them. 

We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through 
a country infinitely populous but miserably cultivated; the 
husbandry, the economy, and the way of living miserable, 
though they boast so much of the industry of the people; 
I say miserable, and so it rs, if we who understand how to 
live were to endure it or to compare it with our own; but 
not so to these poor wretches who know no other. The 
pride of these people is infinitely great, and exceeded by 
nothing but their poverty, which adds to that which I call 
their misery. And I must needs think the naked savages 
of America live much more happy, because, as they have 
nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas, these are proud 
and insolent, and in the main are mere beggars and drudges. 
Their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly shown in 
their clothes and buildings, and in keeping multitudes of 
servants or slaves, and which is to the last degree ridicu- 
lous, their contempt of all the world but themselves. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 ° 4 

I must confess I travelled more pleasantly afterwards in 
the deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary than 
here ; and yet the roads here are well paved, and well kept, 
and very convenient for travellers. But nothing was more 
awkward to me than to see such a haughty, imperious, 
insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and 
ignorance, for all their famed ingenuity is no more. And 
my friend Father Simon and I, used to be very merry upon 
these occasions, to see the beggarly pride of these people. 
For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman, 
as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off of the city 
of Nankin, we had first of all, the honor to ride with the 
master of the house about two miles. The state he rode in, 
was a perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and 
poverty. 

The habit of this greasy don was very proper for a scara- 
mouch or Merry-Andrew, being a dirty calico, with all the 
tawdry and trapping of a fool’s coat, such as hanging-sleeves, 
tassels, and cuts and slashes almost on every side. It cov- 
ered a taffety vest, as greasy as a butcher, and which testi- 
fied that his honor must needs be a most exquisite sloven. 

His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, 
such as in England might sell for about thirty or forty shill- 
ings ; and he had two slaves following him on foot, to drive 
the poor creature along. He had a whip in his hand, and 
he belabored the beast as fast about the head as his slaves 
did about the tail, and thus he rode by us with about ten or 
twelve servants, and we were told he was going from the 
city to his country-seat, about half a league before us. We 
travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away 
before us, and we stopped at a village about an hour to 
refresh us. When we came by the country-seat of this 
great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eat- 
ing his repast. It was a kind of a garden, but he was easy 
to be seen, and we were given to understand that the more 
we looked on him, the better he would be pleased. 

He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, 
which effectually shaded him over the head, and on the 
south side, but under the tree also, was placed a large 



CHINESE GENTLEMAN 


AT HIS REPAST. 


Page 505. 























- V. 














I i 






























• • 

v : ' -* ;■ 4 1 . 






















.. 

* 

v ! ' 

















• ' 

* | • ' . • ' 

V S ' 

V 

1 ;> • • • 
. - •• ■ 










* 










* 




* 

' * • , - • . 

-%•' * ..rft 

•> : • 




















. i -• 




































ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


S°5 

umbrella, which made that part look well enough. He sat 
lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy, corpulent 
man, and his meat being brought him by two women slaves. 
He had two more, whose office, I think, few gentlemen in 
Europe would accept of their service in, viz : one fed the 
squire with a spoon, and the other held the dish with one 
hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship’s 
beard and taffety vest, while the great fat brute thought it 
below him to employ his own hands in any of those familiar 
offices which kings and monarchs would rather do than be 
troubled with the clumsy fingers and muddled brains of their 
servants. 

I took this time to think what pains men’s pride puts 
them to, and how troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill- 
managed, must be to a man of common sense ; and, leaving 
the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him, 
as if we admired his pomp, whereas we really pitied and 
contemned him, we pursued our journey. Only Father 
Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what 
dainties the country justice had to feed on, in all his state, 
which he said he had the honor to taste of, and which was, 
I think, a dose that an English hound would scarce have 
eaten, if it had been offered him, viz : a mess of boiled rice, 
with a great piece of garlic in it, and a little bag filled with 
green pepper, and another plant which they have there, 
something like our ginger, but smelling like musk, and tast- 
ing like mustard. All this was put together, and a small 
lump or piece of lean mutton boiled in it; and this was his 
worship’s repast, four or five servants more attending at a 
distance. If he fed them meaner than he was himself, the 
spice excepted, they must fare very coarsely indeed. 

As for our mandarin, with whom we travelled, he was 
respected like a king. Surrounded always with his gentle- 
men, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, 
that I saw little of him, but at a distance ; but this I 
observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue but that 
our carriers’ pack-horses in England seemed to me to look 
much better ; but they were so covered with equipage, man- 
tles, trappings, and such like trumpery, that you cannot see 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


506 

whether they are fat or lean. In a word, we could see 
scarce anything but their feet and their heads. 

I was now light-hearted; and all my trouble and perplexity 
that I have given an account of being over, I had no anxious 
thoughts about me, which made this journey the pleasanter 
to me; nor had I any ill accident attended me, only in the 
passing or fording a small river, my horse fell, and made 
me free of the country, as they call it, that is to say, threw 
me in. The place was not deep, but it wetted me all over. 
I mention it, because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein 
I had set down the names of several people and places 
which I had occasion to remember, and which, not taking 
due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never 
after to be read, to my great loss, as to the names of some 
places I touched at in this voyage. 

At length we arrived at Pekin. I had nobody with me 
but the youth, whom my nephew, the captain, had given me 
to attend me as a servant, and who proved very trusty and 
diligent; and my partner had nobody with him but one 
.servant, who was a kinsman. As for the Portuguese pilot, 
he being desirous to see the court, we gave him his passage, 
that is to say, bore his charges for his company, and to use 
his as an interpreter; for he understood the language of the 
country, and spoke good French and a little English. And 
indeed, this old man was a most useful implement to us 
everywhere; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, 
when he came laughing, “ Ah, Seignior Inglese,” said he, “ I 
have something to tell you will make your heart glad.” 
“ My heart glad,” said I, “ what can that be? I don’t know 
anything in this country can either give me joy or grief to 
any great degree.” “ Yes, yes,” said the old man, in broken 
English, “ make you glad, me sorrow ; ” (sorry, he would 
have said.) This made me more inquisitive, “Why,” said I, 
“ will it make you sorry ? ” “ Because,” said he, “ you have 
brought me here twenty-five days’ journey, and will leave me 
to go back alone, and which way shall I get to my port 
afterwards without a ship, without a horse, without pe- 
cune ? ” (So he called money, being his broken Latin, of 
which he had abundance to make us merry with.) 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5°7 

In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Musco- 
vite and Polish merchants in the city, and they were pre- 
paring to set out on their journey, by land to Muscovy with- 
in four or five weeks, and he was sure we would take the 
opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind to go 
back all alone. 

I confess I was surprised with his news, a secret joy 
spread itself over my whole soul which I cannot describe 
and never felt before or since, and I had no power for a 
good while to speak a word to the old man ; but at last I 
turned to him: “ How do you know this,” said I, “are you 
sure it is true ? ” “Yes,” said he, “ I met this morning in 
the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or one 
you call a Grecian, who is among them ; he came last from 
Astracan, and was designing to go to Tonquin, where I 
formerly knew him, but has altered his mind, and is now 
rqsolved to go with the caravan to Moscow, and so down 
the river Volga to Astracan.” “Well, Seignior,” said I, “do 
not be uneasy about being left to go back alone ; if this be a 
method for my return to England, it shall be your fault if 
you go back to Macao at all.” We then went to consulting 
together what was to be done, and I asked my partner what 
he thought of the pilot’s news, and whether it would suit 
with his affairs? He told me he would do just as I would, 
for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left 
his effects in such good hands, that as we had made a good 
voyage here, if he could invest it in China silks, wrought 
and raw, such as might be worth the carriage, he would be 
content to go to England, and then make his voyage back to 
Bengal by the company’s ships. 

Having resolved upon this, we agreed that if our Portugal 
pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow 
or to England if he pleased; nor indeed were we to be 
esteemed over generous in that part neither, if we had not 
rewarded him farther, for the service he had done us was 
really worth all that, and more ; for he had not only been a 
pilot to us at sea, but he had been like a broker for us on 
shore; and his procuring for us the Japan merchant was 
some hundreds of pounds in our pocket. So we consulted 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


S ° 8 

together about it, and being willing to gratify him, which 
was indeed but doing him justice, and very willing also to 
have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man 
on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined 
gold, which, as I compute it, came to about /175 sterling 
between us, and to bear all his charges, both for himself and 
horse, except only a horse to carry his goods. 

Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let 
him know what we had resolved; I told him he had com- 
plained of our being to let him go back alone, and I was now 
to tell him we were resolved he should not go back at all. 
That as we had resolved to go to Europe with the caravan, we 
resolved also he should go with us, and that we called him 
to know his mind. He shook his head, and said it was a 
long journey, and he had no pecune to carry him thither, or 
to subsist himself when he came there. We told him we 
believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do 
something for him ; we should let him see how sensible we 
were of the service he had done us, and also how agreeable 
he was to us; and then I told him what we had resolved to 
give him here, which he might lay out as we would do our 
own ; and that as for his charges, if he would go with us we 
would set him safe ashore (life and casualties excepted), 
either in Muscovy or England, which he would, at our own 
charge, except only the carriage of his goods. 

He received the proposal like a man transported, and told 
us he would go with us over the whole world ; and so, in 
short, we all prepared ourselves for the journey. However, 
as it was with us, so it was with the other merchants; they 
had many things to do, and instead of being ready in five 
weeks, it was four months and some odd days before all 
things were got together. 

It was the beginning of February, our style, when we set 
out from Pekin; my partner and the old pilot had gone 
express back to the port where we had first put in, to dispose 
of some goods which we had left there ; and I, with a Chinese 
merchant whom I had some knowledge of at Nankin, and 
who came to Pekin on his own affairs, went to Nankin, where 
I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5°9 


hundred pieces of other very fine silks of several sorts, some 
mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against 
my partner’s return. Besides this, we bought a very large 
quantity of raw silk, and some other goods, our cargo 
amounting in these goods only to about ,£3,500 sterling, 
which, together with tea and some fine calicos, and three 
camel-loads of nutmegs and cloves, loaded — in all, eighteen 
camels for our share, besides those we rode upon ; which 
with two or three spare horses, and two horses loaded with 
provisions, made us in short, twenty-six camels and horses 
in our retinue. 

The company was very great, and, as near as I can remem- 
ber, made between three and four hundred horse, and up- 
wards of a hundred and twenty men, very well armed and 
provided for all events : for, as the eastern caravans are sub- 
jected to be attacked by the Arabs, so are these by the Tar- 
tars ; but they are not altogether so dangerous as the Arabs, 
nor so barbarous when they prevail. 

The company consisted of people of several nations, such 
as Muscovites, chiefly ; for there were above sixty of them 
who were merchants or inhabitants of Moscow; though of 
them, some were Livonians, and to our particular satisfaction, 
five of them were Scots, who appeared also to be men of 
great experience in business, and men of very good sub- 
stance. 

When we had travelled one day’s journey the guides, who 
were five in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants, 
that is to say, all the passengers except the servants, to a 
great council, as they called it. At this great council every 
one deposited a certain quantity of money to a common 
stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on the 
way, where it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying 
the guides getting horses and the like. And here they con- 
stituted the journey, as they call it, viz: they named captains 
and officers, to draw us all up, and give the command in case 
of an attack, and gave every one their turn of command : 
nor was this forming us into order any more than what we 
found needful upon the way, as shall be observed in its place. 

The road all on this side of the country is very populous, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 IQ 

and is full of potters and earth-makers, that is to say, people 
that tempered the earth for the China-ware ; and as I was 
coming along, our Portugal pilot, who had always something 
or other to say to make us merry, came sneering to me and 
told me he would show me the greatest rarity in all the 
country, and that I should have this to say of China, after all 
the ill-humored things I had said of it, that I had seen one 
thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside. I 
was very importunate to know what it was. At last he told 
me it was a gentleman’s house built all with China-ware. 
“ Well,” said I, “are not the materials of their building the 
product of their own country; and so is all China-ware, is it 
not?” “No, no,” said he, “I mean it is a house all made 
of China-ware, such as you call it in England, or, as it is 
called in our country, porcelain.” “Well,” said I, “such a 
thing may be. How big is it? Can we carry it in a box 
upon a camel? If we can, we will buy it.” “ Upon a camel!” 
said the old pilot, holding up both his hands, “why, there is 
a family of thirty people in it.” 

I was then curious indeed to see it, and when I came to it, 
it was nothing but this. It was a timber house, or a house 
built, as we call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all 
the plastering was really China-ware ; that is to say, it was 
plastered with the earth that makes China-ware. 

The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, 
and looked very well, perfect white, and painted with blue 
figures, as the large China-ware in England is painted, and 
hard as if it had been burnt. As to the inside, all the walls, 
instead of wainscot, were lined up with hardened and painted 
tiles, like the little square tiles we call galley-tiles in Eng- 
land, all made of the finest China, and the figures exceeding 
fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colors mixed with 
gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artifi- 
cially, the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was 
very hard to see where the tiles met. The floors of the 
rooms were of the same composition, and as hard as the 
earthen floors we have in use in several parts of England, 
especially Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, 
etc., as hard as a stone, and smooth, but not burnt and 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 ** 

painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, which were 
all as it were paved with the same tiles. The ceiling, and in 
a word, all the plastering work in the whole house were of 
the same earth; and after all, the roof was covered with tiles 
of the same but of a deep shining black. 

This was a China warehouse indeed, truly and literally to 
be called so ; and had I not been upon the journey, I could 
have stayed some days to see and examine the particulars 
of it. They told me there were fountains and fish-ponds in 
the garden, all paved at the bottom and sides with the same, 
and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed 
of the porcelain earth, and burnt whole. 

As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may 
be allowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in 
their accounts of it, for they told me such incredible things 
of their performance in crockery-ware, — for such it is that 
I care not to relate, as knowing it could not be true. They 
told me, in particular, of one workman that made a ship 
with all its tackle, and masts, and sails in earthenware, big 
enough to carry fifty men. If he had told me he launched 
it, and made a voyage to Japan in it, I might have said some- 
thing to it indeed ; but, as it were, I knew the whole of the 
story, which was, in short, asking pardon for the word, that 
the fellow lied. So I smiled and said nothing to it. 

This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for 
which the leader of it for the day fined me about the value 
of three shillings, and told me if it had been three days’ 
journey without the wall, as it was three days within, he 
must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask 
pardon the next council day. So I promised to be more or- 
derly; for, indeed, I found afterward that the orders made 
for keeping all together were absolutely necessary for our 
common safety. 

In two days more we passed the great China wall, made 
for a fortification against the Tartars ; and a very great work 
it is, — going over hills and mountains in a needless track, 
where the rocks are impassable, and the precipices such as 
no enemy could possibly enter, or indeed climb up, or where, 
if they did, no wall could hinder them. They tell us its 


5 12 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


length is near a thousand English miles ; but that the coun- 
try is five hundred in a straight measured line, which the 
wall bounds, without measuring the windings and turnings 
it takes. It is about four fathoms high, and as many thick 
in some places. 

I stood still an hour, or thereabout, without trespassing our 
orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate ; I 
say I stood still an hour, to look at it on every side, near 
and far off, — I mean that was within my view. And the 
guide of our caravan, who had been extolling it for the won- 
der of the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it. 
I told him it was a most excellent thing to keep off the 
Tartars, which he happened not to understand as I meant it, 
and so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed. 
“O Seignior Inglese,” said he, “you speak in colors.” “ In 
colors?” said I. “What do you mean by that?” “Why, 
you speak what looks white this way and black that way; 
gay one way and dull another way. You tell him it is a good 
wall to keep out Tartars. You tell me, by that, it is good 
for nothing but to keep out Tartars, or it will keep out none 
but Tartars. I understand you, Seignior Inglese, I under- 
stand you,” said he; “but Seignior Chinese understood you 
his own way.” 

“Well,” said I, “Seignior, do you think it would stand out 
an army of our country people, with a good train of artillery? 
or our engineers, with two companies of miners ? Would 
not they batter it down in ten days, that an army might enter 
in battalia, or blow it up in the air, foundation and all, that 
there should be no sign of it left?” “Ah! ah!” said he, 
“ I know that.” The Chinese wanted mightily to know what 
I said, and I gave him leave to tell him a few days after; for 
he was then almost out of their country, and he was to leave 
us in a little time afterward ; but when he knew what I had 
said he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no 
more of his tine story of the Chinese power and greatness 
while he stayed. 

After we had passed this mighty nothing called a wall, 
something like the Piets’ Wall, and so famous in Northum- 
berland, and built by the Romans, we began to find the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5*3 

country thinly inhabited, and the people rather confined to 
live in fortified towns and cities, as being subject to the 
inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great 
armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked 
inhabitants of an open country. 

And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together 
in a caravan as we travelled, for we saw several troops of 
Tartars roving about; but when I came to see them dis- 
tinctly, I wondered more that the Chinese Empire could be 
conquered by such contemptible fellows, for they are a mere 
horde or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order, and under- 
standing no discipline or manner of fight. 

Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught noth- 
ing and fit for nothing; and this we said the first day we 
saw them, which was after we entered the wider part of the 
country. Our leader for the day gave leave for about six- 
teen of us to go a hunting, as they call it ; and what was 
this but hunting of sheep. However, it may be called hunt- 
ing, too, for the creatures are the wildest and swiftest of foot 
that ever I saw of their kind, only they will not run a great 
way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the chase; 
for they appear, generally, thirty or forty in a flock, and, like 
true sheep, always keep together when they fly. 

In pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to 
meet with about forty Tartars ; whether they were hunting 
mutton, as we were, or whether they looked for another kind 
of prey, I know not ; but as soon as they saw us, one of 
them blew a kind of horn very loud, but with a barbarous 
sound that I had never heard before, and, by the way, never 
care to hear again. We all supposed this was to call their 
friends about them; and so it was, for in less than half a 
quarter of an hour a troop of forty or fifty more appeared, at 
about a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it 
happened. 

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be 
amongst us, and as soon as he heard the horn he told us, in 
short, that we had nothing to do but to charge them imme- 
diately, without loss of time; and, drawing us up in a line, 
he asked if we were resolved. We told him we were ready 
17 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 1 4 

to follow him; so he rode directly up to them. They stood 
gazing at us like a mere crowd, drawn up in no order, nor 
showing the face of any order at all; but as soon as they 
saw us advance they let fly their arrows, which, however, 
missed us, very happily. It seems they mistook not their 
aim, but their distance ; for their arrows fell a little short of 
us, but with so true an aim that, had we been about twenty 
yards nearer, we must have had several men wounded, if not 
killed. 

Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great dis- 
tance, we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden 
arrows, following our shot full gallop, to fall in among them 
sword in hand, for so our bold Scot that led us directed. 
He was indeed but a merchant; but he behaved with that 
vigor and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such a cool 
courage, too, that I never saw any man in action fitter for 
command. As soon as we came up to them we fired our 
pistols in their faces, and then drew; but they fled in the 
greatest confusion imaginable. The only stand any of them 
made was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by 
signs, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of 
scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging at their 
backs. Our brave commander, without asking any one to 
follow him, galloped up close to them, and, with his fuzee, 
knocked one of them off his horse, killed the second with 
his pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight. 
But we had this misfortune attending it, viz: that all our 
mutton that we had in chase got away. -We had not a man 
killed or hurt; but as for the Tartars, there were about five 
of them killed. Who were wounded we knew not; but this 
we knew, that the other party was so frightened with the 
noise of our guns that they made off and never made any 
attempt upon us. 

We were, all this while, in the Chinese dominion, and 
therefore the Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but 
in about five days we entered a vast great wild desert, which 
held us three days’ and nights’ march ; and we were obliged 
to carry water with us in great leather bottles, and to encamp 
all night, just as I have heard they do in the Desert of Arabia. 


DRAWN BY T. STOTHARD, R. A. 


ENGRAVED BY C. HEATH. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE TRAVELLING 


IN CHINESE TARTARY. 


Page j / j . 







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5*5 

I asked whose dominion this was in, and they told me 
this was a kind of border, that might be called no man’s 
land, being a part of the great Karkathie, or Grand Tartary, 
but that, however, it was all reckoned to China; but that 
there was no care taken here to preserve it from the inroads 
of thieves, and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert in 
the whole world, though we were to go over some much 
larger. 

In passing this wilderness, which, I confess, was at the 
first very frightful to me, we saw, two or three times, little 
parties of the Tartars; but they seemed to be upon their 
own affairs, and to have no design upon us ; and so, like the 
man who met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us we 
had nothing to say to them; we let them go. 

Once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand 
and gaze at us, — whether it was to consider what they 
should do, whether attack us or not attack us, that we knew 
not ; but when we were passed at some distance by them, 
we made a rear guard of forty men and stood ready for 
them, letting the caravan pass half a mile, or thereabouts, 
before us ; but after a while they marched off, only we found 
they saluted us with five arrows at their parting, one of 
which wounded a horse so that it disabled him, and we left 
him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good 
farrier. We supposed they might shoot more arrows, which 
might fall short of us, but we saw no more arrows or Tartars 
that time. 

We travelled near a month after this, the ways being not 
so bad as at first, though still in the dominions of the Em- 
peror of China, but lay for the most part in villages, some of 
which were fortified, because of the incursions of the Tar- 
tars. When we came to one of these towns (it was about 
two days and a half journey before we were to come to the 
city of Naum), I wanted to buy a camel, of which there are 
plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and of horses 
also, such as they are, because, so many caravans coming 
that way, they are often wanted. The person that I spoke 
to to get me a camel would have gone and fetched it for me, 
but I, like a fool, must be officious and go myself along with 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5*6 

him. The place was about two miles out of the village, 
where, it seems, they kept the camels and horses feeding 
under a guard. 

I walked it on foot with my old pilot, being very desirous, 
forsooth, of a little variety. When we came to the place, it 
was a low, marshy ground, walled around with a stone wall, 
piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a park, 
with a little guard of Chinese soldiers at the door. Having 
bought a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away, and 
the Chinese man that went with me led the camel; when, on 
a sudden, came up five Tartars on horseback; two of them 
seized the fellow and took the camel from him, while the 
other three stepped up to me and my old pilot, seeing us, 
as it were, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my 
sword, which could but ill defend me against three horse- 
men. The first that came up stopped short upon my draw- 
ing my sword (for they are arrant cowards); but a second, 
coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head which I 
never felt till afterward, and wondered, when I came to my- 
self, what was the matter with me, and where I was, for he 
laid me flat on the ground ; but my never-failing old pilot, 
the Portuguese (so Providence, unlooked-for, directs deliv- 
erances from dangers which, to us, are unforeseen), had a 
pistol in his pocket which I knew nothing of, nor the Tar- 
tars; neither if they had, I suppose they would not have 
attacked us ; but cowards are always boldest when there is 
no danger. 

The old man seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped 
up to the fellow that had struck me and laid hold of his arm 
with one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little 
towards him with the other, shot him in the head and laid 
him dead upon the spot. He then immediately stepped 
up to him who had stopped us, as I said, and before he 
could come forward again (for it was all done as it were in 
a moment), made a blow at him with a scimitar, which he 
always wore, but missing the man, cut his horse into the 
side of his head, cut one of his ears off by the root, and a 
great slice down the side of his face. The poor beast, 
enraged with the wound, was no more to be governed by 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5^7 

his rider, though the fellow sat well enough, too; but away 
he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot’s reach, and 
at some distance rising up upon his hind legs, threw down 
the Tartar and fell upon him. 

In this interval, the poor Chinese came in who had lost 
the camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tar- 
tar down, and his horse fallen upon him, away he ran to 
him, and seizing upon an ugly, ill-favored weapon he had by 
his side, something like a pole-axe, but not a pole-axe 
neither, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock 
his Tartarian brains out with it. But my old man had the 
third Tartar to deal with still, and seeing he did not fly as 
he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, 
but stood stock-still, the old man stood still too, and fell to 
work with his tackle to charge his pistol again. But, as 
soon as the Tartar saw the pistol, whether he supposed it 
to be the same or another, I know riot, but away he scoured 
and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterward, a 
complete victory. 

By this time I was a little awake, for I thought when 
first I began to wake, that I had been in a sweet sleep ; but 
as I said above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon 
the ground, and what was the matter. In a word, a few 
moments after, as sense returned, I felt pain, though I did 
not know where ; I clapped my hand to my head and took 
it away bloody; then I felt my head ache, and then in 
another moment memory returned, and everything was 
present to me again. 

I jumped up upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my 
sword, but no enemies in view. I found a Tartar lay dead, 
and his horse standing very quietly by him ; and looking far- 
ther, I saw my champion and deliverer, who had been to see 
what the Chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in 
his hand. The old man, seeing me on my feet, came run- 
ning to me, and embraced me with a great deal of joy, being 
afraid before that I had been killed, and seeing me bloody, 
would see how I was hurt; but it was not much, only what 
we call a broken head, neither did I afterwards find any 
great inconvenience from the blow, other than the place 


5 18 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

which was hurt, and was well again in two or three 

days. 

We made no great gain, however, by this victory, for we 
lost a camel, and gained a horse ; but that which was 
remarkable, when we came back to the village, the man 
demanded to be paid for the camel. I disputed it, and it 
was brought to a hearing before the Chinese judge of the 
place ; that is to say, in English, we went before a justice 
of the peace. Give him his due, he acted with a great deal 
of prudence and impartiality; and having heard both sides, 
he gravely asked the Chinese man, that went with me to buy 
the camel, whose servant he was ? “I am no servant,” said 
he, “but went with the stranger.” “At whose request?” 
said the justice. “At the stranger’s request,” said he. 
“Why then,” said the justice, “you were the stranger’s ser- 
vant for the time, and the camel being delivered to his 
servant, it was delivered to him, and he must pay for it.” 

I confess the thing was clear, that I had not a word to 
say; but admiring to see such just reasoning upon the 
consequence, and so accurately stating the case, I paid will- 
ingly for the camel, and sent for another; but you may 
observe, I sent for it, I did not go and fetch it myself any 
more. I had enough of that, 

The city of Naum is a frontier of the Chinese Empire. 
They call it fortified, and so it is, as fortifications go there; 
for this I will venture to affirm, that all the Tartars in Kar- 
kathie, which, I believe, are some millions, could not batter 
down the walls with their bows and arrows ; but to call it 
strong, if it were attacked with cannon, would be to make 
those who understand it, laugh at you. 

We wanted, as I have said, above tw r o day’s journey of 
this city, when messengers were sent express to every part 
of the road, to tell all travellers and caravans, to halt till they 
had a guard sent for them; for that an unusual body of 
Tartars, making ten thousand in all, had appeared in the 
way, about thirty miles beyond the city. 

This was very bad news to travellers. However, it was 
carefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to 
hear we should have a guard. Accordingly, two days after, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5*9 

we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of 
the Chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the 
city of Naum, and with those we advanced boldly. The 
three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front, 
the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of 
our camels with our baggage, and the whole caravan in the 
centre. In this order, and well prepared for battle, we 
thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand 
Mogul Tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, 
when they did appear, it was quite another thing. 

It was early in the morning, when, marching from a little 
well-situated town called Changu, we had a river to pass, 
where we were obliged to ferry; and had the Tartars had 
any intelligence, then had been the time to have attacked 
us, when, the caravan being over, the rear guard was behind. 
But they did not appear. 

About three hours after, when we were entered upon a 
desert of about fifteen or sixteen miles over, behold, by a 
cloud of dust they raised, we saw an enemy was at hand; 
and they were at hand indeed, for they came on upon the spur. 

The Chinese, our guard on the front, who had talked so 
big the day before, began to stagger, and the soldiers fre- 
quently looked behind them, which is a certain sign in a 
soldier that he is just ready to run away. My old pilot was 
of my mind, and being near me, he called out, “ Seignior 
Inglese,” said he, “those fellows must be encouraged, or 
they will ruin us all; for if the Tartars come on, they will 
never stand it.” “I am of your mind,” said I, “but what 
course must be done ? ” “ Done,” said he, “ let fifty of our 

men advance, and flank them on each wing, and encourage 
them, and they will fight like brave fellows in brave com- 
pany; but without, they will every man turn his back.” 
Immediately I rode up to our leader, and told him, who was 
exactly of our mind; and accordingly, fifty of us marched to 
the right wing, and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line 
of reserve; and so we marched, leaving the last two hun- 
dred men to make another body by themselves, and to guard 
the camels. Only that if need were, they should send a 
hundred men to assist the last fifty. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 ° 

In a word, the Tartars came on, and an innumerable com- 
pany they were. How many we could not tell, but ten 
thousand we thought was the least. A party of them came 
on first, and viewed our posture, traversing the ground in 
the front of our line ; and, as we found them within gun 
shot, our leader ordered the two wings to advance swiftly, 
and give them a salvo on each wing with their shot, which 
was done ; but they went off, and I suppose back to give an 
account of the reception they were like to meet with. And 
indeed, that salute clogged their stomach, for they imme- 
diately halted, stood awhile to consider of it, and wheeling 
off to the left, they gave over the design, and said no more 
to us for that time ; which was very agreeable to our cir- 
cumstances, which were but very indifferent for a battle with 
such a number. 

Two days after this we came to the city of Naun, or 
Naum ; we thanked the governor for his care for us, and 
collected to the value of a hundred crowns or thereabouts, 
which we gave to the soldiers sent to guard us, and here we 
rested one day. This is a garrison indeed, and there were 
nine hundred soldiers kept here; but the reason of it was 
that formerly the Muscovite frontiers lay nearer to them 
than they do now, the Muscovites having abandoned that 
part of the country (which lies from this city west, about 
two hundred miles) as desolate and unfit for use ; and more 
especially, being so very remote and so difficult to send 
troops thither for its defense, for we had yet above two 
thousand miles to Muscovy, properly so called. 

After this we passed several great rivers, and two dread- 
ful deserts, one of which we were sixteen days passing over, 
and which, as I said, was to be called No Man’s Land; and 
on the 13th of April we came to the frontiers of the Musco- 
vite dominions. I think the first city or town, or fortress, 
whatever it might be called, that belonged to the Czar cf 
Muscovy, was called Argun, being on the west side of the 
river Argun. 

I could not but discover an infinite satisfaction that I was 
soon arrived in, as I called it, a Christian country, or at least 
in a country governed by Christians ; for, though the Mus- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 21 

covites do, in my opinion, but just deserve the name of 
Christians, yet such they pretend to be and are very devout 
in their way. It would certainly occur to any man who 
travels in the world as I have done, and who had any power 
of reflection, — I say, it would occur to him, to reflect what a 
blessing it is to be brought into the world where the name 
of God and of a Redeemer is known, worshipped, and 
adored ; and not where the people, given up by Heaven to 
strong delusions, worship the devil and prostrate themselves 
to stocks and stones, worship monsters, elements, horrible 
shaped animals and statues, or images of monsters. Not a 
town or city we passed through but had their pagodas, their 
idols, and their temples ; and ignorant people worshiping 
even the work of their own hands. 

Now we came where at least a face of the Christian wor- 
ship appeared, where the knee was bowed to Jesus; and 
whether ignorantly or not, yet the Christian religion was 
owned, and the name of the true God was called upon and 
adored, and it made the very recesses of my soul rejoice to 
see it. I saluted the brave Scotch merchant I mentioned 
above, with my first acknowledgment of this, and taking 
him by the hand I said to him, “ Blessed oe God, we are 
once again come among Christians.” He smiled, and 
answered, “ Do not rejoice too soon, countryman, these 
Muscovites are but an odd sort of Christians ; and but for 
the name of it, you may see very little of the substance for 
some months farther of our journey.” 

“ Well,” said I, “but still it is better than paganism, and 
worshiping of devils.” “ Why, I ’ll tell you,” said he, 
“except the Russian soldiers in garrisons, and a few of the 
inhabitants of the cities upon the road, all the rest of this 
country for a thousand miles farther is inhabited by the 
worst and most ignorant of pagans.” And so indeed we 
found it. 

We were now launched into the greatest piece of solid 
earth, if I understand anything of the surface of the globe, 
that is to be found in any part of the earth. We had at 
least twelve hundred miles to the sea, eastward ; we had at 
least two thousand to the bottom of the Baltic sea, west- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 22 

ward, and above three thousand miles if we left that sea 
and went on west to the British and French channels. We 
had full five thousand miles to the Indian, or Persian sea, 
south, and about eight hundred miles to the frozen sea, 
north. Nay, if some people may be believed, there might 
be no sea north-east till we came round the pole, and conse- 
quently into the north-west, and so had a continent of land 
into America, the Lord knows where; though I could give 
some reasons why I believe that to be a mistake. 

As we entered into the Muscovite dominions, a good 
while before we came to any considerable towns, we had 
nothing to observe there but this : first, that all the rivers 
that ran to the east, as I understood by the charts which 
some in our caravan had with them, it was plain all those 
rivers ran into the great river Yamour, or Gammour; this 
river, by the natural course of it, must run into the east sea, 
or Chinese ocean. The story they tell us, that the mouth of 
this river is choked up with bulrushes of a monstrous 
growth, viz : three feet about, and twenty or thirty feet high, 
I must be allowed to say I believe nothing of; but as its 
navigation is of no use, because there is no trade that way, 
the Tartars, to whom alone it belongs, dealing in nothing but 
cattle, so nobody that ever I heard of has been curious 
enough either to go down to the mouth of it in boats, or 
come up from the mouth of it in ships ; but this is certain, 
that this river running due east, in the latitude of about fifty 
degrees, carries a vast concourse of rivers along with it and 
finds an ocean to empty itself in that latitude, so we are 
sure of sea there. 

Some leagues to the north of this river there are several 
considerable rivers whose streams run as due north as the 
Yamour runs east, and these are all found to join their 
waters with the great river Tartarus, named so from the 
northernmost nations of the Mongol Tartars, who the Chinese 
say were the first Tartars in the world ; and who, as our 
geographers allege, are the Gog and Magog mentioned in 
sacred story. 

These rivers running all northward, as well as all the 
other rivers I am yet to speak of, make it evident that the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 3 


northern ocean bounds the land also on that side; so that 
it does not seem rational in the least to think that the land 
can extend itself to join with America on that side, or that 
there is not a communication between the northern and east- 
ern oceans ; but of this I shall say no more ; it was my obser- 
vation at that time, and therefore I take notice of it in this 
place. We now advanced from the river Arguna by easy 
and moderate journeys, and were very visibly obliged to the 
care the Czar of Muscovy has taken to have cities and towns 
built in as many places as are possible to place them, where 
his soldiers keep garrison, something like the stationary sol- 
diers placed by the Romans in the remotest countries of 
their empire, some of which I had read particularly were 
placed in Britain for the security of commerce, and for the 
lodging travellers; and thus it was here, for, wherever we 
came, though at these towns and stations the garrisons and 
governor were Russians and professed Christians, yet the 
inhabitants of the country were mere pagans, sacrificing to 
idols and worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host 
of heaven ; and not only so, but were of all the heathens 
and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, except 
only that they did not eat man’s flesh, as our savages of 
America did. 

Some instances of this we met with in the country be- 
tween Arguna, where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and 
a city of Tartars and Russians together, called Nertzinskay, 
in which is a continued desert or forest, which cost us 
twenty days to travel over it. In a village near the last of 
those places I had the curiosity to go and see their way of 
living, which is most brutish and insufferable. They had I 
suppose a great sacrifice that day, for there stood out upon 
an old stump of a tree an idol made of wood, frightful as the 
devil, at least as anything we can think of to represent the 
devil can be made ; it had a head certainly not so much as 
resembling any creature that the world ever saw; ears as 
big as goat’s horns, and as high ; eyes as big as a crown- 
piece ; a nose like a crooked ram’s horn, and a mouth ex- 
tended four-cornered, like that of a lion, with horrible teeth, 
hooked like a parrot’s under-bill; it was dressed up in the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 4 

filthiest manner that you could suppose; its upper garment 
was of sheep-skins, with the wool outward, a great Tartar 
bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it ; it 
was about eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, or any 
other proportion of parts. 

This scarecrow was set up at the outer side of the village, 
and when I came near to it, there were sixteen or seventeen 
creatures, whether men or women I could not tell, for they 
make no distinction by their habits, either of body or head. 
These lay all flat on the ground, round this formidable block 
of shapeless wood. I saw no motion among them, any more 
than if they had been all logs of wood like the idol, and at 
first really thought they had been so ; but when I came a 
little nearer, they started up upon their feet and raised a 
howling cry, as if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, 
and walked away, as if they were displeased at our disturb- 
ing them. A little way off from the idol, and at the door of 
that tent or hut, made all of sheep-skins and cow-skins dried, 
stood three butchers. I thought they were such ; when I 
came nearer to them, I found they had long knives in their 
hands, and in the middle of the tent appeared three sheep, 
killed, and one young bullock or steer. These, it seems, 
were sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol, and these 
three men, priests belonging to it; and the seventeen pros- 
trated wretches were the people who brought the offering, 
and were making their prayers to that stock. 

I confess I was more moved at their stupidity and brutish 
worship of a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything in my 
lif e? — to see God’s most glorious and best creature, to whom 
he had granted so many advantages, even by creation, above 
the rest of the works of his hands, vested with a reasonable 
soul, and that soul adorned with faculties and capacities, 
adapted both to honor his Maker and be honored by him, 
sunk and degenerated to a degree so more than stupid, as 
to prostrate itself to a frightful nothing, a mere imaginary 
object, dressed up by themselves, and made terrible to them- 
selves by their own contrivance, adorned only with clouts 
and rags ; and that this should be the effect of mere igno- 
rance, wrought up into hellish devotion by the devil himself, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 5 

who, envying (to his Maker) the homage and adoration of 
his creatures, had deluded them into such gross, surfeiting, 
sordid and brutish things as one would think should shock 
nature itself. 

But what signified all the astonishment and reflection of 
thoughts ? Thus it was, and I saw it before my eyes, and 
there was no room to wonder at it, or think it impossible. 
All my admiration turned to rage ; and I rode up to the 
image, or monster, call it what you will, and, with my sword, 
cut the bonnet that was on its head in two in the middle, so 
that it hung down by one of the horns ; and one of our men 
that was with me took hold of the sheep-skin that covered 
it and pulled at it, when, behold a most hideous outcry and 
howling run through the village, and two or three hundred 
people came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for 
it, for we saw some had bows and arrows ; but I resolved, 
from that moment, to visit them again. 

Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was 
about four miles off, in order to provide some horses which 
they wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and 
jaded with the badness of the way and long march over the 
last desert, so we had some leisure here to put my design 
in execution. I communicated my project to the Scots mer- 
chant of Moscow, of whose courage I had had sufficient testi- 
mony, as above. I told him what I had seen, and with what 
indignation I had since thought that human nature could be 
so degenerate. I told him I was resolved, if I could but get 
four or five men, well armed, to go with me, I was resolved 
to go and destroy that vile, abominable idol, and let them 
see that it had no power to help itself, and consequently 
could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed to, much 
less help them that offered sacrifices to it. 

He laughed at me; said he, “Your zeal may be good, but 
what do you propose to yourself by it?” “Propose,” said I, 
“ to vindicate the honor of God, which is insulted by this 
devil worship.” “ But how will it vindicate the honor of 
God?” said he, “while the people will not be able to know 
what you mean by it, unless you could speak to them and 
tell them so ; and then they will fight you and beat you too, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


526 

I’ll assure you, for they are desperate fellows, and that 
especially in defense of their idolatry.” “ Can we not,” said 
I, “do it in the night, and then leave them the reasons and 
causes in writing in their own language?” “Writing?” 
said he, “ why there is not a man in five nations of them 
that know anything of a letter or how to read a word in any 
language, or in their own.” “Wretched, ignorant!” said I 
to him ; “ however, I have a great mind to do it ; perhaps 
nature may draw inferences from it to them, to let them see 
how brutish they are to worship such horrid things.” “ Look 
you, sir,” said he, “if your zeal prompts you to do it so 
warmly, you must do it; but in the next place I would have 
you consider, these wild nations of people are subjected by 
force to the Czar of Muscovy’s dominions, and if you do 
this, ’tis ten to one but they will come by thousands to the 
governor of Nertzinskay and complain, and demand satis- 
faction ; and if he cannot give them satisfaction, ’tis ten to 
one but they revolt; and will occasion a new war with all the 
Tartars in the country.” 

This, I confess, put new thoughts into my head for a 
while ; but I harped upon the same string still, and all that 
day I was uneasy to put my project in execution. Towards 
the evening the Scotch merchant met me by accident in our 
walk about the town, and desired to speak with me. “ I 
believe,” said he, “ I have put you off of your good design. 
I have been a little concerned about it since, for I abhor the 
idol and the idolatry as much as you can do.” “ Truly,” 
said I, “you have put it off a little as to the execution of it, 
but you have not put it all out of my thoughts, and I believe 
I shall do it still before I quit this place, though I were to 
be delivered up to them for satisfaction.” “No, no,” said 
he, “ God forbid they should deliver you up to such a crew 
of monsters; they shall not do that neither, that would be 
murdering you, indeed.” “Why,” said I, “how would they 
use me?” “Use you!” said he, “I’ll tell you how they 
served a poor Russian who affronted them in their worship 
just as you did, and who they took prisoner; after they had 
lamed him with an arrow that he could not run away, they 
took him and stripped him stark naked and set him up on 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 2 7 

the top of the idol monster, and stood all round him, and 
shot as many arrows into him as would stick over his whole 
body, and then they burnt him and all the arrows sticking in 
him as a sacrifice to the idol.” “ And was this the same 
idol?” “ Yes,” said he, “ the very same.” “Well,” said I, 
“ I’ll tell you a story.” So I related the story of our men at 
Madagascar, and how they burnt and sacked the village there, 
and killed men, women and children, for their murdering 
one of our men, just as it is related before; and when I had 
done, I added that I thought we ought to do so to this 
village. 

He listened very attentively to the story ; but when I 
talked of doing so to that village, said he, “ you mistake very 
much, it was not this village, it was almost a hundred miles 
from this place, but it was the same idol, for they carry him 
about in procession all over the country.” “ Well, then,” 
said I, “ then that idol ought to be punished for it, and it 
shall,” said I, “if I live this night out.” 

In a word, finding me resolute, he liked the design, and 
told me I should not go alone, but he would go with me and 
bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also with 
us ; and one, said he, as famous for his zeal as you can 
desire anyone to be, against such devilish things as these. 
In a word, he brought me his comrade, a Scotchman, whom 
he called Captain Richardson, and I gave him a full account 
of what I had seen, and, in a word, of what I intended; and 
he told me readily, he would go with me if it cost him his 
life ; so we agreed to go only us three. I had indeed pro- 
posed it to my partner, but he declined it; he said, he was 
ready to assist me to the utmost, and upon all occasions for 
my defense, but that this was an adventure quite out of his 
way ; so, I say, we resolved upon our work, only us three 
and my man-servant, and to put it in execution that night 
about midnight, with all the secresy imaginable. 

However, upon second thoughts, we were willing to delay 
it till the next night, because, the caravan being to set for- 
ward in the morning, we supposed the governor could not 
pretend to give them any satisfaction upon us when we 
were out of his power. The Scotch merchant, as steady in 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


528 

his resolution for the enterprise, as bold in executing, 
brought me a Tartar’s robe, or gown of the sheep-skins, 
and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the 
same for himself and his countryman, that the people, if 
they saw us, should not be able to determine who we were. 

All the first night we spent in mixing up some com- 
bustible matter with aqua-vitae, gunpowder, and such other 
materials as we could get; and having a good quantity of 
tar in a little pot, about an hour after night we set out upon 
our expedition. 

We came to the place about eleven o’clock at night, and 
found that the people had not the least jealousy of danger 
attending their idol. The night was cloudy, yet the moon 
gave us light enough to see that the idol stood just in the 
same posture and place that it did before. The people 
seemed to be all at their rest, only, that in the great hut, or 
tent, as we called it, where we saw the three priests, whom 
we mistook for butchers, we saw a light, and going up close 
to the door, we heard people talking, as if there were five or 
six of them. We concluded, therefore, that if we set the 
wild-fire to the idol, these men would come out immediately, 
and run up to the place to rescue it from the destruction 
that we intended for it, and what to do with them we knew 
not. Once we thought of carrying it away, and setting fire 
to it at a distance ; but when we came to handle it, we found 
it too bulky for our carriage, so we were at a loss again. 
The second Scotchman was for setting fire to the tent or 
hut, and knocking the creatures that were there on the 
head when they came out ; but I could not join with that. 
I was against killing them, if it was possible to be avoided. 
“Well, then,”. said the Scotch merchant, “I’ll tell what we 
will do. We will try to take them prisoners, tie their hands 
behind them, and make them stand still and see their idol 
destroyed.” 

As it happened, we had twine or pack-thread enough 
about us, which was used to tie our fireworks together with. 
So we resolved to attack the people first, and with as little 
noise as we could. The first thing we did, we knocked at 
the door, which issued just as we desired it; for one of their 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


529 


idol priests came to the door. We immediately seized upon 
him, stopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and 
led him to the idol, where we gagged him, that he might not 
make a noise ; tied his feet also together, and left him on 
the ground. 

Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another 
would come out to see what the matter was ; but we waited 
so long till the third man came back to us, and then nobody 
coming out we knocked again gently, and immediately out 
came two more, and we served them just in the same man- 
ner, but were obliged to go all with them, and lay them 
down by the idol some distance from one another. When 
going back, we found two more were come out to the door, 
and a third stood between them within the door. We seized 
the two, and immediately tied them, when the third stepping 
back, and crying out, my Scotch merchant went in after him, 
and taking out a composition we had made, that would only 
smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it among them. 
By that time, the other Scotchman and my man taking 
charge of the two men who were already bound, and tied 
together also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left 
them there, to see if their idol would relieve them, making 
haste back to us. 

When the fuze we had thrown in had filled the hut with 
so much smoke that they were almost suffocated, we then 
threw in a small leather bag of another kind, which flamed 
like a candle, and, following it in, we found there were but 
four people left, who, it seems, were two men and two 
women, and, as we supposed, had been about some of their 
diabolic sacrifices. They appeared, in short, frighted to 
death, at least, so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able 
to speak neither for the smoke. 

In a word, we took them, bound them as we had the 
others, and all without any noise. I should have said we 
brought them out of the house or hut first ; for indeed we 
were not able to bear the smoke any more than they were. 
When we had done this, we carried them all together to 
the idol. When we came there, we fell to work with him; 
and first we daubed him all over, and his robes also, with 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


530 

tar and such other stuff as we had, which was tallow mixed 
with brimstone ; then we stopped his eyes, ears and mouth 
full of gunpowder; and then we wrapped up a great piece of 
wild-fire in his bonnet; and then, sticking all the combus- 
tibles we had brought with us upon him, we looked about to 
see if we could find anything else to help to burn him, when 
my man remembered that by the tent or hut where the men 
were there lay a heap of dry forage, whether straw or rushes 
I do not remember. Away he and one of the Scotchmen 
ran, and fetched their arms full of that. When we had done 
this, we took all our prisoners and brought them, having 
untied their feet and ungagged their mouths and made them 
stand up, and set them just before their monstrous idol, and 
there set fire to the whole. 

We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, — 
till the powder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol 
blew up, and we could perceive had split and deformed the 
shape ; and, in a word, till we saw it burn into a mere block 
or log of wood; and then, setting the dry forage to it, we 
found it would be quite consumed, when we began to think 
of goingaway. But the Scotchman said no, we must not go, 
for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves 
into the fire, and burn themselves with the idol. So we 
resolved to stay till the forage was burnt down, too, and 
then we came away and left them. 

In the morning we appeared among our fellow-travellers 
exceeding busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could 
any man suggest that we had been anywhere but in our 
beds, as travellers might be supposed to be, to fit themselves 
for the fatigue of that day’s journey. 

But it did not end so. The next day came a great mul- 
titude of the country people, not only of this village, but of a 
hundred more, for aught I know, to the town gates, and in 
a most outrageous manner demanded satisfaction of the 
Russian governor for the insulting their priests and burning 
their great Cham-Chi-Thaungu, such a hard name they gave 
the monstrous creature they worshipped. The people of 
Nertzinskay were in great consternation, for they said the 
Tartars were 30,000, and shortly would be 100,000 strong. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


531 

The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease 
them, and gave them all the good words imaginable. He 
assured them he knew nothing of it, and that there had not 
a soul of his garrison been abroad ; that it could not be from 
anybody there; and if they would let him know who it 
was, they should be exemplarily punished. They returned, 
haughtily, that all the country reverenced the great Cham- 
Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the sun, and no mortal would 
have dared to offer violence to his image but some Christian 
miscreant, — so they called them, it seems; and they there- 
fore denounced war against him and all the Russians, who, 
they said, were miscreants and Christians. 

The governor, still patient and unwilling to make a breach, 
or to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him, the 
Czar having strictly charged them to treat the conquered 
country with gentleness and civility, gave them still all the 
good words he could. At last he told them there was a car- 
avan gone towards Russia that morning, and perhaps it was 
some of them who had done them this injury; and that if 
they would be satisfied with that, he would send after them 
to enquire into it. This seemed to appease them a little; 
and accordingly the governor sent after us, and gave us a 
particular account how the thing was, intimating, withal, that 
if any in our caravan had done it, they should make their 
escape ; but that, whether they had done it or no, we should 
make all the haste forward that was possible, and that, in 
the meantime, he would keep them in play as long as he 
could. 

This was very friendly in the governor. However, when 
it came to the caravan, there was nobody knew anything of 
the matter. And as for us, that were guilty, we were the 
least of all suspected, — none so much as asked us the ques- 
tion. However, the captain of the caravan for the time took 
the hint that the governor gave us, and we marched or trav- 
elled two days and two nights without any considerable stop, 
and then we lay at a village called Plothus ; nor did we make 
any long stop here, but hastened on towards Jarawena, 
another of the Czar of Muscovy’s colonies, and where we 
expected we should be safe ; but it is to be observed that 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


S3 2 

here we began, for two or three days’ march, to enter upon 
the vast nameless desert, of which I shall say more in its 
place, and which, if we had now been upon it, it is more 
than probable we had been all destroyed. It was the second 
days’ march from Plothus, that by the clouds of dust behind 
us, at a great distance, some of our people began to be sen- 
sible we were pursued. We had entered the desert, and 
had passed by a great lake called Schaks-Oser, when we 
perceived a very great body of horse appear on the other 
side of the lake to the north, we travelling west. We ob- 
served they went away west, as we did, but had supposed 
we would have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very 
happily took the south side ; and in two days more we saw 
them not, for they, believing we were still before them, 
pushed on till they came to the river Udda. This is a very 
great river when it passes farther north, but where we came 
to it we found it narrow and fordable. 

The third day they either found their mistake, or had in- 
telligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards the 
dusk of the evening. We had, to our great satisfaction, just 
pitched upon a place for our camp which was very conven- 
ient for the night; for as we were upon a desert, though but 
at the beginning of it, that was above 500 miles over, we 
had no towns to lodge at, and indeed expected none but the 
city Jarawena, which we had yet two days’ march to. The 
desert, however, had some few woods in it on this side, and 
little rivers, which ran all into the great river Udda. It was 
in a narrow strait between two little, but very thick woods, 
that we pitched our little camp for that night, expecting to 
be attacked in the night. 

Nobody knew but ourselves what we were pursued for; 
but as it was usual for the Mongol Tartars to go about in 
troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify them- 
selves every night against them, as against armies of 
robbers; and it was, therefore, no new thing to be pursued. 

But we had, this night of all the nights of our travels, a 
most advantageous camp, for we lay between two woods, 
with a little rivulet running just before our front, so that we 
could not be surrounded or attacked any way but in our 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


533 


front or rear. We took care, also, to make our front as 
strong as we could, by placing our packs, with our camels 
and horses, all in a line on the inside of the river, and felling 
some trees in our rear. 

In this posture we encamped for the night, but the enemy 
was upon us before we had finished our situation. They 
did not come on us like thieves, as we expected, but sent 
three messengers to us to demand the men to be delivered 
to them that had abused their priests and burnt their god, 
Cham-Chi-Thaungu, with fire, that they might burn them 
with fire ; and upon this they said they would go away and 
do us no farther harm, otherwise, they would burn us all 
with fire. Our men looked very blank at this message, and 
began to stare at one another, to see who looked with most 
guilt in their faces ; but nobody was the word, nobody did 
it. The leader of the caravan sent word he was well 
assured it was not done by any of our camp, that we were 
peaceable merchants traveling on our business, that we had 
done no harm to them or to anyone else ; and that therefore, 
they must look farther for their enemies who had injured 
them, for we were not the people, so desired them not to 
disturb us, for, if they did, we should defend ourselves. 

They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer, 
but a great crowd of them came down in the morning by 
break of day to our camp; but seeing us in such an 
unaccountable situation, they durst come no farther than 
the brook in our front, where they stood and showed us 
such a number that indeed terrified us very much ; for those 
that spoke least of them, spoke of ten thousand. Here they 
stood and looked at us awhile, and then, setting up a great 
howl, they let fly a great crowd of arrows among us ; but we 
were well enough fortified for that, for we sheltered under 
our baggage, and I do not remember that one man of us 
was hurt. 

Some time after this we saw them move a little to our 
right, and expected them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, 
a Cossack, as they call them, of Jarawena, in the pay of the 
Muscovites, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, 
“ I’ll go send all these people away to Siheilka; ” this was 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


534 

a city four or five days’ journey at least to the south, and 
rather behind us. So he takes his bow and arrows, and 
getting on horse-back, he rides away from our rear directly 
as it were back to Nertzinskay. After this, he takes a 
great circuit about and came to the army of the Tartars, 
as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story ; 
that the people who had burnt the Cham-Chi-Thaungu, were 
gone to Siheilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called 
them, that is to say, Christians, and that they had resolved 
to burn the god Schal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguese. 

As this fellow was himself a mere Tartar, and perfectly 
spoke their language, he counterfeited so well that they all 
took it from him, and away they drove in a most violent 
hurry to Siheilka, which, it seems, was five days’ journey to 
the north, and in less than three hours they were entirely 
out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them ; and 
we never knew whether they went to Siheilka, or no. 

So we passed safely on to the city of Jarawena, where 
there was a garrison of Muscovites, and there we rested five 
days, the caravan being exceedingly fatigued with the last 
day’s hard march, and with want of rest in the night. 

From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us 
three-and-twenty days’ march. We furnished ourselves 
with some tents here for the better accommodating our- 
selves in the night; and the leader of the caravan procured 
sixteen carriages or wagons of the country for carrying our 
water and provisions, and these carriages were our defense 
every night round our little camp, so that had the Tartars 
appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they 
would not have been able to hurt us. 

We may well be supposed to want rest again, after this 
long journey ; for in this desert we saw abundance of the 
sable hunters, as they called them. These are all Tartars 
of the Mogul Tartary, of which this country is a part, and 
they frequently attack small caravans, but we saw no num- 
bers of them together. I was curious to see the sable skins 
they caught, but could never speak with any of them, for 
they durst not come near us, neither durst we straggle from 
our company to go near them. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


535 


After we had passed this desert, we came into a country 
pretty well inhabited ; that is to say, we found towns and 
castles, settled by the Czar of Muscovy, with garrisons of 
stationary soldiers to protect the caravans and defend the 
country against the Tartars, who would otherwise make it 
very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty had 
given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans 
and merchants, that if there were any Tartars heard of in the 
country, detachments of the garrisons were always sent to 
see the travellers safe from station to station. 

And thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom I had oppor- 
tunity to make a visit to, by means of the Scotch merchant, 
who was acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty 
men, if we thought there was any danger, to the next 
station. 

I thought long before this, that, as we came nearer to 
Europe, we should find the country better peopled, and the 
people more civilized; but I found myself mistaken in both, 
for we had yet the nation of the Tonguese to pass through, 
where we saw the same tokens of paganism and barbarity ; 
or worse than before, only as they were conquered by the 
Muscovites, and entirely reduced, they were not so danger- 
ous ; but for rudeness of manners, idolatry, and multithe- 
ism, no people in the world ever went beyond them. They 
are clothed all in skins of beasts, and their houses are built 
of the same. You know not a man from a woman, neither 
by the ruggedness of their countenances, or their clothes ; 
and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, 
they live underground, in houses like vaults, which have 
cavities going from one to another. 

If the Tartars had their Cham-Chi-Thaungu for a whole 
village or country, these had idols in every hut and in every 
cave. Besides, they worship the stars, the sun, the water, 
the snow, and, in a word, everything that they do not under- 
stand ; and they understand but very little. So that almost 
every element, every uncommon thing, sets them a sac- 
rificing. 

But I am no more to describe people than countries, any 
farther than my own story comes to be concerned in them. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


536 

I met with nothing peculiar to myself in this country, which 
I reckon was from the desert which I spoke of last, at least 
four hundred miles, half of it being another desert, which 
took us up twelve days’ severe travelling, without horse, or 
tree, or bush, but were obliged again to carry our own pro- 
visions, as well water as bread. After we were out of this 
desert, and had travelled two days, we came to Janezay, a 
Muscovite city or station, on the great river Janezay. This 
river, they told us, parted Europe from Asia, though our 
map-makers, as I am told, do not agree to it. However, it 
is certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient Siberia, 
which now makes up a province only of the vast Muscovite 
empire, but is itself equal in bigness to the whole empire 
of Germany. 

And yet, here I observed ignorance and paganism still 
prevailed, except in the Muscovite garrisons. All the coun- 
try between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as 
entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest 
of the Tartars ; nay, as any nation, for aught I know, in 
Asia or America. I also found, which I observed to the 
Muscovite governors whom I had opportunity to converse 
with, that the poor pagans are not much the wiser or the 
nearer Christianity for being under the Muscovite govern- 
ment; which they acknowledged was true enough, but, as 
they said, was none of their business. That, if the czar 
expected to convert his Siberian, or Tonguese, or Tartar 
subjects, it should be done by sending clergymen among 
them, not soldiers; and they added, with more sincerity 
than I expected, that they found it was not so much the 
concern of their monarch to make the people Christians, 
as it was to make them subjects. 

From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed a wild 
and uncultivated country. I cannot say ’tis a barren soil; 
’tis only barren of people and good management, otherwise 
it is in itself a most pleasant, fruitful and agreeable country. 
What inhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such 
as are sent among them from Russia; for this is the country, 
I mean on both sides the river Oby, whither the Muscovite 
criminals that are not put to death are banished, and from 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 537 

whence it is next to impossible they should ever come 
away. 

I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till 
I came to Tobolsk, the capital city of Siberia, where I con- 
tinued some time on the following occasion. 

We had been now almost seven months on our journey, 
and winter began to come on apace ; whereupon my partner 
and I called a council about our particular affairs, in which 
we found it proper, considering that we were bound for 
England, and not for Moscow, to consider how to dispose of 
ourselves. They told us of sledges and reindeer to carry us 
over the snow in the winter time ; and indeed they have 
such things that it would be incredible to relate the particu- 
lars of, by which means the Russians travel more in the win- 
ter than they can in summer, because in these sledges they 
are able to run all night and day ; the snow being frozen, is 
one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, the 
vales, the rivers, the lakes, all are smooth and hard as a 
stone, and they run upon the surface without any regard to 
what is underneath. 

But I had no occasion to push at a winter journey of this 
kind. I was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route 
lay two ways : either I must go on as the caravan went, till I 
came to Feroslaw, and then go off west for Narva, and the 
Gulf of Finland, and so either by sea or land to Dantzic, 
(where I might possibly sell my China cargo to good advan- 
tage), or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the 
Dwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Arch- 
angel, and from thence might be sure of shipping, either to 
England, Holland, or Hamburg. 

Now to go any of these journeys in the winter, would have 
been preposterous ; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be 
frozen up and I could not get passage, and to go by land in 
those countries, was far less safe than among the Mongol 
Tartars ; likewise to go to Archangel in October, all the 
ships would be gone from thence, and even the merchants 
who dwell there in summer retire south to Moscow in the 
winter, when the ships are gone ; so that I should have noth- 
ing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity of 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


53 * 

provisions, and must lie there in an empty town all the win- 
ter. So that, upon the whole, I thought it a much better 
way to let the caravan go, and to make provision to winter 
where I was, viz : at Tobolsk, in Siberia, where I was sure 
of three things to wear out a cold winter with, viz : plenty of 
provision such as the country afforded; a warm house, with 
fuel enough, and excellent company; of all which I shall 
give a full account in its place. 

I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved 
island, where I never felt cold except when I had my ague. 
On the contrary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on 
my back, and never made any fire but without doors, and for 
my necessity in dressing my food, etc. Now I made me 
three good vests, with large robes or gowns over them to 
hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrists, and all 
these lined with furs to make them sufficiently warm. 

As to a warm house, I must confess I greatly disliked our 
way in England of making fires in every room in the house, 
in open chimneys, which, when the fire was out, always kept 
the air in the room cold as the climate, but taking an apart- 
ment in a good house in the town, I ordered a chimney to 
be built like a furnace, in the centre of six several rooms, 
like a stove ; the funnel to carry the smoke went up one way, 
the door to come at the fire went in another, and all the 
rooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen, just as 
they heat the bagnios in England. 

By this means we had always the same climate in all the 
rooms, and an equal heat was preserved; and, how cold 
soever it was without, it was always warm within, and yet we 
saw no fire nor was incommoded with any smoke. 

The most wonderful thing of all, was that it should be 
possible to meet with good company here, in a country so 
barbarous as that of the most northerly parts of Europe, 
near the frozen ocean, and within but a very few degrees of 
Nova Zembla. 

But this being the country where the state criminals of 
Muscovy, as I observed before, are all banished, this city 
was full of noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in 
short, all degrees of the nobility, gentry, soldiery and cour- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


539 


tiers of Muscovy. Here was the famous Prince Gallitzin, 
the old General Robostiski, and several other persons of 
note, and some ladies. 

By means of my Scotch merchant, whom nevertheless I 
parted with here, I made an acquaintance here with several 
of these gentlemen, and some of them of the first rank ; and 
from these, in the long winter nights in which I stayed here, 
I received several very agreeable visits. I was talking one 

night with Prince , one of the banished ministers of 

state, belonging to the Czar of Muscovy, that my talk of my 
particular case began. He had been telling me abundance 
of fine things of the greatness, the magnificence, the domin- 
ions, and the absolute power of the Emperor of the Rus- 
sians. I interrupted him, and told him I was a greater and 
more powerful prince than ever the Czar of Muscovy was, 
though my dominions were not so large, or my people so 
many. The Russian grandee looked a little surprised, and 
fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what I 
meant. 

I told him his wonder would cease when I had explained 
myself. First, I told him I had the absolute disposal of the 
lives and fortunes of all my subjects; that, notwithstanding 
my absolute power, I had not one person disaffected to my 
government, or to my person, in all my dominions. He 
shook his head at that, and said there indeed I outdid the 
Czar of Muscovy. I told him that all the lands in my king- 
dom were my own, and all my subjects were not only my 
tenants, but tenants at will; that they would all fight for me 
to the last drop; and that never tyrant (for such I acknowl- 
edged myself to be) was ever so universally beloved, and yet 
so horribly feared by his subjects. 

After amusing them with these riddles in government for 
awhile, I opened the case and told them the story at large 
of my living in the island, and how I managed both myself 
and the people there that were under me, just as I have since 
minuted it down. They were exceedingly taken with the 
story, and especially the prince, who told me with a sigh, 
that the true greatness of life was to be master of ourselves; 
that he would not have exchanged such a state of life as 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


540 

mine to have been Czar of Muscovy; and that he found 
more felicity in the retirement he seemed to be banished to 
there, than ever he found in the highest authority he enjoyed 
in the court of his master the Czar; that the height of hu- 
man wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circum- 
stances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the 
greatest storm without. When he came first hither, he said 
he used to tear the hair from his head and the clothes from 
his back, as others had done before him; but a little time 
and consideration had made him look into himself, as well 
as round him to things without; that he found the mind of 
man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon the state of 
universal life, and how little this world was concerned in its 
true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicity for 
itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own best 
ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the 
world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for 
warmth, and liberty for exercise in order to health, completed, 
in his opinion, all that the world could do for us; and though 
the greatness, the authority, the riches and the pleasures 
which some enjoyed in the world, — and which he had en- 
joyed his share of, — had much in them that was agreeable 
to us, yet he observed that all those things chiefly gratified 
the coarsest of our affections, — such as our ambition, our 
particular pride, our avarice, our vanity, and our sensuality : 
all which were indeed the mere product of the worst part of 
man, were in themselves crimes, and had in them the seeds 
of all manner of crimes, but neither were related to, or con- 
cerned with, any of those virtues that constituted us wise 
men, or of those graces which distinguished us as Christians. 
That being now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he 
enjoyed in the full exercise of all those vices, he said he was 
at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where he found 
all manner of deformity, and was now convinced that virtue 
only makes a man truly wise, rich and great, and preserves 
him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state. 
And in this, he said, they were more happy in their banish- 
ment than their enemies, who had the full possession of all 
the wealth and power that they left behind them. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


541 


“Nor, sir,” said he, “do I bring my mind to this politi- 
cally, by the necessity of my circumstances, which some 
call miserable; but if I know anything of myself, I would 
not now go back, though the Czar, my master, should call 
me and reinstate me in all my former grandeur. I say I 
would no more go back to it than I believe my soul, when 
it shall be delivered from this prison of the body, and has 
had a taste of the glorious state beyond life, would come 
back to the jail of flesh and blood it is now enclosed in, 
and leave heaven, to deal in the dirt and crime of human 
affairs.” 

He spoke this with so much warmth in his temper, so 
much earnestness and motion of his spirits, which were 
apparent in his countenance, that it was evident it was the 
true sense of his soul. There was no room to doubt his 
sincerity. 

I told him I once thought myself a kind of a monarch in 
my old station, of which I had given him an account; but 
that I thought he was not a monarch only, but a great con- 
queror, for that he that hath got a victory over his own ex- 
orbitant desires, and has the absolute dominion over him- 
self, whose reason entirely governs his will, is certainly 
greater than he that conquers a city. “ But, my lord,” said 
I, “shall I take the liberty to ask you a question?” “With 
all my heart,” said he. “ If the door of your liberty was 
opened,” said I, “would you not take hold of it to deliver 
yourself from this exile ? ” 

“ Hold ! ” said he ; “ your question is subtle, and requires 
some serious just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; 
and I’ll give it you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing 
that I know of in this world would move me to deliver my- 
self from this state of banishment except these two: first, 
the enjoyment of my relations; and, secondly, a little warmer 
climate. But I protest to you, that to go back to the pomp 
of the court, the glory, the power, the hurry of a minister of 
state, the wealth, the gaiety and the pleasures — that is to 
say, follies — of a courtier, if my master should send me 
word this moment that he restores me to all he banished me 
from, I protest, if I know myself at all, I would not leave 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


542 

this wilderness, these deserts and these frozen lakes, for the 
palace at Moscow.” 

“But, my lord,” said I, “perhaps you are not only ban- 
ished from the pleasure of the court, and from the power 
and authority and wealth you enjoyed before, but you may 
be absent, too, from some of the conveniences of life, your 
estate perhaps confiscated and your effects plundered, and 
the supplies left you here may not be suitable to the ordinary 
demands of life.” 

“Ay,” said he, “that is, as you suppose me to be a lord, 
or a prince, etc. So indeed I am; but you are now to con- 
sider me only as a man, a human creature not at all distin- 
guished from another, and so I can suffer no want unless I 
should be visited with sickness and distempers. However, 
to put the question out of dispute, you see our manner. 
We are in this place five persons of rank; we live perfectly 
retired, as suited to a state of banishment; we have some- 
thing rescued from the shipwreck of our fortunes, which 
keeps us from the mere necessity of hunting for our food. 
But the poor soldiers who are here without that help, live 
in as much plenty as we, who go into the woods and catch 
sables and foxes; the labor of a month will maintain them a 
year, and as the way of living is not expensive, so it is not 
hard to get sufficient to ourselves. So that objection is out 
of doors.” 

I have not room to give a full account of the most agree- 
able conversation I had with this truly great man, in all 
which he showed that his mind was so inspired with a supe- 
rior knowledge of things, so supported by religion, as well 
as by a vast share of wisdom, that his contempt of the world 
was really as much as he had expressed, and that he was 
always the same to the last, as will appear in the story I am 
going to tell. 

I had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter 
I thought it to be, the cold so intense that I could not so 
much as look about without being wrapped in furs, and a 
mask of fur before my face, or rather a hood with only a 
hole for breath, and two for sight. The little daylight we 
had, was, as we reckoned, for three months, not above five 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


543 

hours a day, and six at most; only that the snow lying on 
the ground continually and the weather clear, it was never 
quite dark. Our horses were kept (or rather starved) under 
ground, and as for our servants, for we hired three servants 
here to look after our horses and selves, we had every now 
and then their fingers and toes to thaw and take care of, lest 
they should mortify and fall off. 

It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being 
close, the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all 
double ; our food was chiefly the flesh of deer dried and 
cured in the season; good bread enough, but baked as bis- 
cuits ; dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, 
and of the buffaloes, which is pretty good beef. All the 
stores of provision for the winter are laid up in the summer, 
and well-cured ; our drink was water mixed with aqua-vitae 
instead of brandy, and for a treat mead instead of wine, 
which, however, they have excellent good. The hunters, 
who venture abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in 
fresh venison, very fat and good, and sometimes bears* 
flesh, but we did not much care for the last. We had a 
good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends, as 
above, and, in a word, we lived very cheerfully and well, all 
things considered. 

It was now March, and the days grown considerably 
longer, and the weather, at least, tolerable ; so the other 
travellers began to prepare sleds to carry them over the 
snow, and to get things ready to be going. But my meas- 
ures being fixed, as I have said, for Archangel, and not to 
Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion, knowing very 
well that the ships from the south do not set out for that 
part of the world till May or June, and that if I was there by 
the beginning of August, it would be as soon as any ships 
would be ready to go away. And, therefore, I say I made 
no haste to be gone, as others did. In a word, I saw a great 
many people, nay, all the travellers go away before me. It 
seems every year they go from hence to Moscow for trade, 
viz : to carry furs and buy necessaries with them, which 
they bring back to furnish their shops ; also, others w r ent of 
the same errand to Archangel, but then they also being to 


544 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

come back again above eight hundred miles, went all out 
before me. 

In short, about the latter end of May I began to make 
all ready to pack up ; and, as I was doing this, it occurred 
to me, that seeing all these people were banished by the Czar 
of Muscovy to Siberia, and yet, when they came there, were 
left at liberty to go whither they would, why did they not 
then go away to any part of the world, wherever they 
thought fit; and I began to examine what should hinder 
them from making such an attempt. 

But my wonder was over, when I entered upon that sub- 
ject with the person I have mentioned, who answered me 
thus : “ Consider first, sir,” said he, “ the place where we 
are; and secondly, the condition we are in; especially,” said 
he, “the generality of the people who are banished hither. 
We are surrounded,” said he, “with stronger things than 
bars and bolts. On the north side an unnavigable ocean, 
where ship never sailed, and boat never swam ; neither, if 
we had both, could we know where to go with them. 
Every other way,” said he, “ we have a thousand miles to 
pass through the Czar’s own dominions, and by ways utterly 
unpassable, except by the roads made by the governor and 
by the towns garrisoned by his troops, so that we could 
neither pass undiscovered by the road, or subsist any other 
way, so that it is in vain to attempt it.” 

I was silenced indeed at once, and found that they were 
in a prison, every jot as secure as if they had been locked 
up in the castle at Moscow ; however, it came into my 
thought that I might certainly be made an instrument to 
procure the escape of this excellent person, and that, what- 
ever hazard I run, I would certainly try if I could carry him 
off. Upon this, I took an occasion one evening to tell him 
my thoughts. I represented to him that it was very easy 
for me to carry him away, there being no guard over him in 
the country; and as I was not going to Moscow, but to 
Archangel, and that I went in the nature of a caravan, by 
which I was not obliged to lie in the stationary towns in the 
desert, but could encamp every night where I would, we 
might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel, where I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


5 45 

would immediately secure him on board an English or 
Dutch ship, and carry him off safe along with me; and as 
to his subsistence and other particulars, it should be my 
care till he could better supply himself. 

He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on 
me all the while I spoke. Nay, I could see in his very face 
that what I said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; 
his color frequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his 
heart fluttered, that it might be even perceived in his coun- 
tenance, nor could he immediately answer me. When I 
had done, and as it were expected what he would say to it, 
but after he had paused a little he embraced me, and said, 
u How happy are we, unguarded creatures as we are, that 
even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares to 
us, and we are made tempters of one another! My dear 
friend,” said he, “ your office is so sincere, has such kind- 
ness in it, is so disinterested in itself, and is so calculated 
for my advantage, that I must have very little knowledge of 
the world if I did not both wonder at it and acknowledge 
the obligation I have upon me to you for it. But did you 
believe I was sincere in what I have so often said to you 
of my contempt of the world ? Did you believe I spoke my 
very soul to you, and that I had really obtained that degree 
of felicity here that had placed me above all that the world 
could give me or do for me ? Did you believe I was sin- 
cere, when I told you I would not go back, if I was recalled 
even to all that once I was in the court, with the favor of 
the Czar, my master? Did you believe me, my friend, to be 
an honest man, or did you think me to be a boasting hypo- 
crite ? ” Here he stopped, as if he would hear what I would 
say ; but, indeed, I soon after perceived that he stopped 
because his spirits were in motion, his great heart was full 
of struggles, and he could not go on. I was, I confess, aston- 
ished at the thing, as well as at the man, and I used some 
arguments with him to urge him to set himself free. That 
he ought to look upon this as a door opened by Heaven for 
his deliverance, and a summons by Providence, who has the 
care and disposition of all events, to do himself good and 
to render himself useful in this world. 

i3 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


546 

He had by this time recovered himself. “ How do you 
know, sir,” said he, warmly, “ that instead of a summons from 
heaven, it may not be a feint of another instrument, repre- 
senting in all the alluring colors to me the show of felicity 
as a deliverance, which may in itself be my snare, and tend 
directly to my ruin ? Here I am free from the temptation of 
returning to my former miserable greatness ; there I am not 
sure but that all the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and 
luxury, which I know remain in nature, may revive and take 
root, and, in a word, again overwhelm me, and then the 
happy prisoner, whom you see now master of his soul’s lib- 
erty, shall be the miserable slave of his own senses, in the 
full of all personal liberty. Dear sir, let me remain in this 
blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather 
than purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the lib- 
erty of my reason, and at the expense of the future happi- 
ness which now I have in my view, but shall then, I fear, 
quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh, a man, a mere man, 
have passions and affections as likely to possess and over- 
throw me as any man. O be not my friend and my tempter 
both together ! ” 

If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and 
stood silent looking at him, and indeed admired at what I saw ; 
the struggle in his soul was so great that, though the weather 
was extremely cold, it put him into a most violent sweat, 
and I found he wanted to give vent to his mind ; so I said 
a word or two, that I would leave him to consider of it, and 
wait on him again, and then I withdrew to my own apart- 
ment. 

About two hours after I heard somebody at, or near, the 
door of my room, and I was going to open the door, but he 
had opened it and came in. “My dear friend,” said he, 
“you had almost overset me, but I am recovered; do not 
take it ill that I do not close with your offer. I assure you 
’tis not for want of a sense of the kindness of it in you, and 
I came to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it to 
you ; but I hope I have got the victory over myself.” 

“ My lord,” said I, “ I hope you are fully satisfied that 
you do not resist the call of heaven.” “ Sir,” said he, “ if it 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


547 

had been from heaven the same power would have in- 
fluenced me to accept it; but I hope and am fully satisfied 
that it is from heaven that I decline it, and I have an infinite 
satisfaction in the parting that you shall leave me an honest 
man still, though not a free man.” 

I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make profes- 
sions to him of my having no end in it but a sincere desire 
to serve him. He embraced me very passionately, and as- 
sured me he was sensible of that, and should always ac- 
knowledge it, and with that he offered me a very fine present 
of sables, too much indeed for me to accept from a man in 
his circumstances, and I would have avoided them, but he 
would not be refused. 

The next morning I sent my servant to his lordship with 
a small present of tea and two pieces of China damask, and 
four little wedges of Japan gold, which did not all weigh 
above six ounces or thereabout, but were far short of the 
value of his sables, which, indeed, when I came to England, 
I found worth near £ 200 . He accepted the tea and one 
piece of the damask, and one of the pieces of gold which 
had a fine stamp upon it of the Japan coinage, which I found 
he took for the rarity of it but would not take any more, and 
he sent word by my servant that he desired to speak with me. 

When I came to him, he told me I knew what had passed 
between us, and hoped I would not move him any more in 
that affair; but that since I had made such a generous offer 
to him, he asked me if I had kindness enough to offer the 
same to another person that he would name to me, in whom 
he had a great share of concern. I told him that I could not 
say I inclined to do so much for anyone but himself, for 
whom I had a particular value, and should have been glad to 
have been the instrument of his deliverance ; however, if he 
would please to name the person to me I would give him my 
answer, and hoped he would not be displeased with me, if 
he was with my answer. He told me it was his only son 
whom, though I had not seen, yet was in the same condition 
with himself, and above two hundred miles from him on the 
other side the Oby; but that if I consented he would send 
for him. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


548 

I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it. I made 
some ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly 
on his account, and that seeing I could not prevail on him, 
I would show my respect to him by my concern for his son. 
But these things are too tedious to repeat here. He sent 
away the next day for his son, and in about twenty days he 
came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven horses 
loaded with very rich furs, and which in the whole amounted 
to a very great value. 

His servants brought the horses into the town, but left the 
young lord at a distance till night, when he came incognito 
into our apartment, and his father presented him to me; and 
in short, we concerted there the manner of our travelling, 
and everything proper for the journey. 

I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox 
skins, fine ermines, and such other furs as are very rich, — 
I say, I had bought them in that city in exchange for some 
of the goods I brought from China; in particular for the 
cloves and nutmegs, of which I sold the greatest part here, 
and the rest afterwards at Archangel, for a much better price 
than I could have done at London ; and my partner, who was 
sensible of the profit, and whose business more particularly 
than mine was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our 
stay on account of the traffic we made here. 

It was the beginning of June, when I left this remote 
place, — a city, I believe, little heard of in the world; and 
indeed it is so far out of the road of commerce that I know 
not how it should be much talked of. We were now come 
to a very small caravan, being only thirty-two horses and 
camels in all, and all of them passed for mine, though my 
new guest was proprietor of eleven of them. It was most 
natural also that I should take more servants with me than 
I had before, and the young lord passed for my steward ; 
what great man I passed for myself, I know not, neither did 
it concern me to enquire. We had here the worst and the 
largest desert to pass over that we met with in all the jour- 
ney ; indeed, I call it the worst, because the way was very 
deep in some places and very uneven in others ; the best 
we had to say for it, was, that we thought we had no troops 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


549 

of Tartars and robbers to fear, and that they never came on 
this side the Oby, or at least, but very seldom, but we found 
it otherwise. 

My young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite servant, 
or rather a Siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted 
with the country, and led us by private roads, that we 
avoided coming into the principal towns and cities upon 
the great road, such as Tumen, Soly-Kamskoi, and several 
others, because the Muscovite garrisons which are kept 
there are very curious and strict in their observation upon 
travellers, and searching lest any of the banished persons 
of note should make their escape that way into Muscovy ; 
but by this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so our 
whole journey was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp 
and lie in our tents, when we might have had very good 
accommodation in the cities on the way. This the young 
lord was so sensible of, that he would not allow us to lie 
abroad when we came to several cities on the way, but lay 
abroad himself with his servant in the woods, and met us 
always at the appointed places. 

We were just entered Europe, having passed the river 
Kama, which, in these parts, is the boundary between Eu- 
rope and Asia, and the first city on the European side was 
called Soly-Kamskoi, which is as much as to say, the great 
city on the river Kama. And here we thought to have seen 
some evident alteration in the people, their manner, their 
habit, their religion, and their business ; but we were mis- 
taken, for as we had a vast desert to pass, which, by rela- 
tion, is near 700 miles long in some places, but not above 
200 miles over where we passed it, so, till we came past that 
horrible place, we found very little difference between that 
country and the Mogul Tartary, — the people, most pagans, 
and little better than the savages of America, their houses 
and towns full of idols, and their way of living wholly bar- 
barous, except in the cities as above, and the villages near 
them, where there are Christians, as they call themselves, of 
the Greek Church, but have their religion mingled .with so 
many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known, in 
some places, from mere sorcery and witchcraft. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


55 ° 

In passing this forest, I thought indeed we must, after all 
our dangers were in our imagination escaped, as before, 
have been plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered by 
a troop of thieves, — of what country they were, whether the 
roving bands of the Ostiachi, a kind of Tartars or wild 
people on the bank of the Oby and ranged thus far, or 
whether they were the sable-hunters of Siberia, I am yet at 
a loss to know; but they were all on horseback, carried bows 
and arrows, and were at first about five-and-forty in number. 
They came so near to us, as within about two musket shot, 
and asking no questions, they surrounded us with their 
horses and looked very earnestly upon us twice. At length 
they placed themselves just in our way, upon which we drew 
up in a little line before our camels, being not above sixteen 
men in all; and being drawn up thus, we halted and sent 
out the Siberian servant, who attended his lord, to see who 
they were. His master was the more willing to let him go 
because he was not a little apprehensive that they were a 
Siberian troop sent out after him. The man came up near 
them with a flag of truce and called them, but though he 
spoke several of their languages of dialects, or languages, 
rather, he could not understand a word they said. How- 
ever, after some signs to him not to come nearer to them at 
his peril, so he said he understood them to mean, offering to 
shoot at him if he advanced, the fellow came back no wiser 
than he went, — only that by their dress, he said he believed 
them to be some Tartars of Calmuck, or of Circassian 
hordes, and that there must be more of them upon the great 
desert, though he never heard that any of them were ever 
seen so far north before. 

This was small comfort to us. However, we had no rem- 
edy. There was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a 
mile’s distance, a little grove or clump of trees which stood 
close together and very near the road. I immediately re- 
solved we would advance to those trees and fortify ourselves 
as well as we could there ; for first, I considered that the 
trees would in a great measure cover us from their arrows, 
and, in the next place, they could not come to charge us in 
a body. It was indeed my old Portuguese pilot who pro- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


55 

posed it, and who had this excellency attending him, namely, 
that he was always readiest and most apt to direct and en- 
courage us in cases of the most danger. We advanced im- 
mediately with what speed we could, and gained that little 
wood, the Tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call 
them, keeping their stand and not attempting to hinder us. 
When we came thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, 
that it was a swampy, springy piece of ground, and on the 
one side a very great spring of water, which, running out in 
a little rill or brook, was, a little farther, joined by another 
of the like bigness, and was, in sort, the head or source of a 
considerable river, called afterwards the Wirtska. The trees 
which grew about this spring were not in all above 200, but 
were very large and stood pretty thick ; so that as soon as 
we got in we saw ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy, 
unless they alighted and attacked us on foot. 

But to make this more difficult, our Portuguese, with 
indefatigable application, cut down great arms of the trees, 
and laid them hanging not quite cut off from one tree to 
another, so that he made a continued fence almost round us. 

We stayed here, waiting the motion of the enemy some 
hours, without perceiving they made any motion; when, 
about two hours before night, they came down directly upon 
us, and though we had not perceived it, we found they had 
been joined by some more of the same, so that they were 
near fourscore horse, whereof however, we fancied some 
were women. They came on till they were within half-shot 
of our little wood, when we fired one musket without ball, 
and called to them in the Russian tongue to know what 
they wanted and bid them keep off ; but, as if they knew 
nothing of what we said, they came on with a double fury 
directly up to the woodside, not imagining we were so bar- 
ricaded that they could not break in. Our old pilot was our 
captain, as well as he had been our engineer, and desired of 
us not to fire upon them till they came within pistol shot, 
and that we might be sure to kill, and that when we did fire 
we should be sure to take good aim. We bade him give the 
word of command, which he delayed so long, that they were 
some of them within two pikes’ length of us when we fired. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


55 2 

We aimed so true (or Providence directed our shot so 
sure), that we killed fourteen of them, and wounded several 
others, as also several of their horses ; for we had all of us 
loaded our pieces with two or three bullets at least. 

They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated 
immediately about one hundred rods from us, in which 
time we loaded our pieces again, and seeing them keep that 
distance, we sallied out and caught four or five of their 
horses, whose riders we suppose were killed; and, coming up 
to the dead, we could easily perceive they were Tartars, but 
knew not from what country, or how they came to make an 
excursion such an unusual length. 

About an hour after, they made a motion to attack us 
again, and rode round our little wood to see where else they 
might break in ; but finding us always ready to face them, 
they went off again, and we resolved not to stir from the 
place for that night. 

We slept little you maybe sure, but spent the most part 
of the night in strengthening our situation, and barricading 
the entrances into the wood, and keeping a strict watch. 
We waited for daylight, and when it came, it gave us a very 
unwelcome discovery indeed ; for the enemy, whom we 
thought were discouraged with the reception they had met 
with, were now increased to no less than three hundred, and 
had set up eleven or twelve huts and tents, as if they were 
resolved to besiege us ; and this little camp they had pitched 
upon the open plain, at about three quarters of a mile from 
us. We were indeed surprised at this discovery; and now 
I confess I gave myself over for lost, and all that I had. 
The loss of my effects did not lie so near me (though they 
were very considerable), as the thoughts of falling into the 
hands of such barbarians, at the latter end of my journey, 
after so many difficulties and hazards as I had gone through, 
and even in sighc of our port, where we expected safety and 
deliverance. As for my partner, he was raging. He de- 
clared that to lose his goods would be his ruin, and he 
would rather die than be starved ; and he was for fighting to 
the last drop. 

The young lord, as gallant as ever flesh showed itself, was 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


553 

for fighting to the last, also ; and my old pilot was of the 
opinion we were able to resist them all in the situation we 
were then in ; and thus we spent the day in debates of what 
we should do ; but, towards evening, we found that the num- 
ber of our enemies still increased, perhaps as they were 
abroad in several parties for prey. The first had sent out 
scouts to call for help, and to acquaint them of the booty; 
and we did not know but by the morning they might still be 
a greater number, so I began to enquire of those people we 
had brought from Tobolsk, if there was no other or more 
private ways by which we might avoid them in the night, 
and perhaps either retreat to some town or get help to 
guard us over the desert. 

The Siberian, who was a servant to the young lord, told 
us if we designed to avoid them and not fight he would en- 
gage to carry us off in the night to a way that went north 
towards the Petrou, by which he made no question but we 
might get away, and the Tartars never the wiser: but he 
said his lord had told him he would not retreat but would 
rather choose to fight. I told him he mistook his lord, for 
that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the sake of 
it ; that I knew his lord was brave enough by what he had 
showed already, but that his lord knew better than to desire 
to have seventeen or eighteen men fight five hundred unless 
an unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he 
thought it possible for us to escape in the night we had 
nothing else to do but to attempt it. He answered, if his 
lord gave him such orders he would lose his life if he did 
not perform it. We soon brought his lord to give that order, 
though privately, and we immediately prepared for the put- 
ting it in practice. 

And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire 
in our little camp which we kept burning, and prepared so 
as to make it burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude 
we were still there; but as soon as it was dark, that is to 
say so as we could see the stars (for our guide would not 
stir before), having all our horses and camels ready laden, 
we followed our new guide, who steered himself by the pole, 
or north star, all the country being level for a long way. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


554 

After we had travelled two hours very hard it began to be 
lighter still, not that it was quite dark all night, but the 
moon began to rise, so that in a word it was rather lighter 
than we wished it to be ; by six o’clock the next morning we 
were gotten near forty miles, though the truth is we almost 
spoiled our horses. Here we found a Russian village named 
Kermazinskoy, where we rested and heard nothing of the 
Calmuck Tartars that day. About two hours before night 
we set out again, and travelled till eight the next morning, 
though not quite so quiet as before, and about seven o’clock 
we passed a little river called Kirtza, and came to a good 
large town inhabited by Russians, and very populous, called 
Ozomoys. There we heard that several troops or hordes of 
Calmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we were 
now completely out of danger of them, which was to our 
great satisfaction, you may be sure. Here we were obliged 
to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest, 
we stayed five days ; and my partner and I agreed to give 
the honest Siberian, who brought us thither, the value of 
ten pistoles for his conducting us. 

In five days more we came to Veuslima, upon the river 
Witzogda, and running into the Dwina; we were there very 
happily near the end of our travels by land, that river being 
navigable in seven days’ passage to Archangel. From hence 
we came to Lawrenskoy the 3d of July, and providing our- 
selves with two luggage boats, and a barge for our own con- 
venience, we embarked the 7th and arrived all safe at Arch- 
angel the 1 8th, having been a year and five months and 
three days on the journey, including our stay of eight 
months and odd days at Tobolsk. 

We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the 
arrival of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a 
Hamburger come in above a month sooner than any of the 
English ships, when, after some consideration that the city 
of Hamburg might happen to be as good a market for our 
goods as London, we all took freight with him, and having 
put my goods on board, it was most natural for me to put 
my steward on board to take care of them, by which means 
my young lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal him- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


555 

self, never coming on shore in all the time we stayed there ; 
and this he did that he might not be seen in the city, where 
some of the Moscow merchants would certainly have seen 
and discovered him. 

We sailed from Archangel the 20th of August the same 
year, and after no extraordinary bad voyage arrived in the 
Elbe the 13th of September. Here my partner and I found 
a very good sale for our goods, as well those of China, as 
the sables, etc., of Siberia; and dividing the produce of our 
effects, my share amounted to ,£3475 17s. 3d., notwith- 
standing so many losses we had sustained, and charges we 
had been at; only remembering that I had included in this 
about £600 worth of diamonds which I had purchased at 
Bengal. 

Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the 
Elbe in order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved 
to seek protection, and where he could correspond with those 
of his father’s friends who were left alive. He did not part 
without all the testimonies he could give me of gratitude for 
the service I had done him, and his sense of my kindness 
to the prince, his father. 

To conclude, having stayed near four months in Hamburg, 
I came from thence over land to the Hague, where I em- 
barked in the packet, and arrived in London the 10th of 
January, 1705, having been gone from England ten years 
and nine months. 

And here, resolving to harass myself no more, I am pre- 
paring for a longer journey than all these, having lived 
seventy-two years, a life of infinite variety, and learned 
sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing 
of ending our days in peace. 


THE END. 



t 




I 




















% 




1 

























































